Another set to make his debut at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. Kyle Marsh explains how he has reached his dream of becoming a Paralympian.
So here we are in Brazil for my first Paralympic Games. To be honest even though I’m in Brazil and I have all my very nice Adidas kit it still feels like a dream, but I’m sure that will definitely change when I arrive into the athletes village in Rio.
To think back to when I started at the age of 11 following the advice from my swimming coach is pretty incredible, back then I had no idea that 15 years later I would be here but I am incredibly thankful for that advice because now I am experiencing what many people could only dream of. I do realise I am part of a very small number that have had to chance to participate in a Paralympic Games and I couldn’t be more excited.
It has been very long preparation period going through highs and lows, few more lows than I would of liked but I do feel like I am ready to go give it everything on the court. Our preparation for Rio has taken us to a variety of places from Canada to Leicester (UK) to USA and Worcester (UK) to name a few.
On average I say we do four hours on court a day, five days a week with three gym sessions in a typical week. It’s pretty demanding on the body and mind but it’s all for the dream of medaling at Rio. We have a great balance in this team of rookies and experienced players so we have been asking many questions about what its going to be like, but one common theme was that everybody has had a different experience or memory so what I’m looking forward to the most is making my own memories.
One thing that I am definitely looking forward to is that first time we sing the national anthem going into our first game.
