Paralympic swimming champion Liz zooms in for motivation and goal setting workshop

: Created: 14 September 2021

The former Paralympics GB star has been swimming since the age of three and was born with cerebral palsy. In her swimming career she has competed at the highest level winning medals at three Paralympic Games and the IPC World Championships.

This week, as part of her work with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, she spoke to a class full of eager students hoping to repeat her success in a variety of different sports and sporting careers.

Liz began the workshop getting the students to all stand up and go through some limbering up exercises - particularly the static breast stroke. This got everyone in the mood and ready for action.

She told the class to look seriously at their motivations and what made them want to achieve. She said: “To be a success in whatever sport or business you choose, it’s important to look at your own motives, reasoning and incentives - both now and in the future. It may be money and being rich, it may be wanting to hold aloft a trophy in front of an audience of devoted fans, or it could be to give yourself your own sense of personal achievement. Whichever it is, you need to identify the dream and then assess if it’s realistic or not.

“At a very young age, I knew I was different physically from other children of my age and although it didn’t stop me from doing anything, others seemed to think it should do. It was the attitude of some people that made me disabled, not my actual physical condition. After my mother took me swimming at a local club, I soon developed an ambition to one day become a Paralympic champion and I committed my life right up to the moment I achieved that goal. That meant getting up at 4.30am each morning to train at the pool.

“Just ten days before I won gold in Beijing, my mother died after a short illness - this left me wanting to win more than ever, not for me particularly but for my mum - she had supported me all the way up to this moment and I simply had to make her proud.

“I will leave you all with some simple but very important pieces of advice. You are in charge of your own destiny; you must be true to yourself and stay motivated through the good times and the bad. Always be the best that you can be."

This workshop was arranged and delivered in partnership with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. The Trust use world class athletes like Liz to deliver transformational programmes to young people facing disadvantage, helping them to improve their wellbeing, build healthy relationships and unlock the confidence, self-esteem and resilience needed to achieve in education, work and life.

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