One day the Paralympics will be BIGGER than the Olympics

As Paris kicks off another fortnight of unforgettable sport, we speak to ParaGB competitors Funmi Oduwaiye, Claire Taggart and Stephen Clegg about their medal chances and the obstacles they've overcome to realise their potential

- Kat Hopps

BEFORE becoming a Parashot put and discus medal hopeful in the Paris Paralympics, Funmi Oduwaiye intended to dedicate her life to basketball. "It's still probably the best sport ever even if my coach disagrees," she chuckles. "It took my heart really."

Funmi, 21, from Cardiff, played basketball for Wales but was forced to retire aged just 16 after a routine knee operation went wrong and paralysed her lower right leg.

"They damaged an artery in the first surgery, leading to a series of operations and complications," she explains. "I kept hoping I would go back to basketball, but it got to the point where I was told I might not walk again, let alone run.

"It was the hardest time of my life trying to come to terms with the fact I had a disability and may not be physically active again."

Struggling to return to the sport she loved, Funmi took up Paraathletics in 2022 at the behest of the late Anthony Head, an influential Paralympic coach at Disability Sport Wales who she met through her physiotherapist.

Now, she's due to make her Paralympic debut on Sunday in the Women's F64 discus, followed by the Women's F46 shot put next Thursday.

The rising Welsh star, whose inspirational story recently featured along with other British athletes in Channel 4's Path to Paris documentary, qualified for the competition at last year's World Paraathletics Championships, where she came fourth in her shot put category and sixth in discus.

But, as Funmi admits, it took her a while to make the mental switch from basketball to her new field discipline.

"I didn't enjoy it at first," she says. "It was a way of getting back into physical fitness. Success helped and then it got to a point where I wasn't winning every competition but I was starting to enjoy the sport and the process more."