Libby Clegg

A change of class to T11 in 2016 resulted in a change of fortune for Clegg who went on to complete the sprint double at Rio 2016.

In the 100m T11 heats in Rio, Clegg opened with a European record of 12.17 seconds and then clocked a world record 11.91 in the semi-finals.

The final was an absolute thriller. Clegg crossed the line in 11.96, 0.02 seconds ahead of China’s Guohua Zhou. World champion Cuiqing Liu was third.

Full of confidence, Clegg went on to secure gold in the 200m T11 smashing the Paralympic record in the final with a time of 24.51.

She was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2017.

Rio was Clegg’s third Paralympics. At London 2012 she won 100m T12 silver, a medal she also won in the same event in Beijing in 2008.

Clegg has competed in four World Championships, making her debut in 2006. She has since won five world medals, including 100m T12 gold at the 2011 World Championships in New Zealand.

In 2014 she won 100m T12 Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow, Great Britain. Illness limited her performances at the 2014 European Championships and an ankle injury sustained whilst warming up for a race in Doha, Qatar, cut short her 2015 World Championships.

Clegg took up Para athletics at age nine, the same age she was diagnosed with Stargardt macular dystrophy, a condition resulting in her having only slight peripheral vision in her left eye.

Her younger brother James won a bronze medal in swimming at the London 2012 Paralympics, and her partner Dan Powell competed in judo at the same event. Her younger brother Stephen participated in swimming at the Rio 2016 Games.