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Few people can be more immersed in the build-up to London 2012 than Nikki Emerson.
The Oxford University graduate is tipped to make the Great Britain wheelchair racing team for the Paralympics just 18 months after breaking her back in a car accident.
Between training sessions, she has a full-time job with 2012 organisers at Canarf Wharf developing Olympic merchandise - from baby clothes to duvets - which will raise millions towards the cost of staging the Games.
The 21-year-old was inspired to train for the Paralympics after watching the Beijing Games on TV from her bed at the spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville hospital in Aylesbury.
She said: "I was lucky because I had the Olympics and the Paralympics to watch and it was inspirational. I didn't have a moment when I wondered what I was going to do or what a horrible thing had happened to me, because it isn't. I was in hospital with people so badly injured they can only move their heads." British Paralympic champion Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson advised her that her best chance of success was wheelchair racing, building on her strength as a former endurance runner. She came ninth in the London marathon in April.
On a typical day she trains from 5am on rollers in the bedroom of her Aylesbury home before taking the 7am Tube to Canary Wharf. Post-work training sessions at Stoke Mandeville start at 8pm. Dame Tanni said: "She's got an amazing chance of making the Paralympics."
Tomorrow, there will be 1,000 days to go until the London Paralympics.
Reader views (4)
What a girl and what commitment! We wish you well and may all your effrts reap a well-deserved reward. Well done.
- Clive And Linda, Torquay UK, 07/12/2009 17:33
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Nikki... you're a star!!! Xxxx
- Rachael Burke, United Kingdom, 03/12/2009 00:25
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Wouldn't it have been cheaper for usLondon rate-payers and better for people like Nikki if, instead of spending £12billion, so far and rising, on 2012 we had spent some of it making their whole lives better rather than just for one or two days.
Lord Coe and his cronies would disagree of course. They were given £1.7million as a bonus for overspending royaally last year, and wwill get even more for continuing to overspend this year. But, hey, its someone else's money, isn't it? Yes, its our money and we weren't asked. I still say scrap the 2012 Olympics.
- Wuffo The Wonder Dog, Barking, England, 02/12/2009 23:03
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Good luck with the training. I hope you are given the right backing and resources to succeed.
- Dannyp, Egham, 02/12/2009 11:29
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