Wheelchair basketball can ‘defy expectations’, says paralympian – BBC News

A wheelchair basketball player has been preparing for her fourth Paralympics after being picked for the team to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris.

Amy Conroy, 31, from Norwich, said: “This will be my fourth Paralympics and, honestly, I think it gets more exciting. Just because you’ve had more years of putting in the hard work and faced more setbacks, so I really cannot wait.”

At Tokyo 2020 the team lost in the quarter finals to China, but this year Conroy thinks the team can bring home the gold medal.

“I think we can get gold. This year [we’ve] beaten the current world and Paralympic champions, everyone’s playing for each other.

“We have been working on a cocky swagger. Rather than being kind of British. We’re going to do this. We’ve worked on a load of culture training as hard as we can – we can’t wait.”

After the games in Paris, which begin next month, Conroy hopes to launch a business venture with her sister, which involves running wheelchair basketball sessions as team-building exercises for businesses.

“I think it’s all stemmed from how I’ve seen the power of awareness of the sport. I think it can defy expectations and almost redefine what people think of as strength.

“The plan is to get able-bodied people [in] businesses trying wheelchair basketball for team bonding, and also to see what it’s like in a chair.”

Alongside playing wheelchair basketball Conroy is also a model, which is something she finds empowering.

“I think any awareness is powerful and, occasionally, I have done things where I’ve felt like I’m a bit of a tick box here. Maybe it’s not super-authentic. You know [where] there [are] lots of stairs – it’s not been thought about.

“I think any awareness for any kid who’s kind of struggling with accepting a new image or a new kind of way of life in a chair, can see it and think ‘actually no, life is always going to be as good, it’s just going to be different then I pictured’.

“If it can help anyone that’s my main goal. I just think the more authentic it becomes the better.

“I want people to think having prosthetic legs is cool.”