Rising to the occasion at the World Para Athletics Champs in Paris this month will have a huge impact on driving para athletics forward, writes Thomas Young

It’s wonderful to be making preparations for another championships summer. From a personal point of view, I’m desperate to make up for lost time after missing the Commonwealth Games last year through injury and having a World Para Athletics Championships on the horizon for the first time since 2019 is very significant.

The fact they are taking place in Paris, host city for next year’s Paralympics, only heightens the excitement levels.

Though it will be a different competition venue, to be able to get the lay of the land – from transport systems through to where to get good coffee – and work the city out in advance is going to be massively helpful.

As I mentioned, the pandemic has meant we haven’t had a World Championships for four years now and this staging is the start of a crucial time for para sport.

The Paralympics always feels like the time when we can really make inroads into the public consciousness and to spread awareness of our brilliant athletes, so this summer presents a brilliant chance to get an early start on doing that!

I remember going around the country just after I won my 100m T38 Paralympic gold in Tokyo and people would stop me and ask “Are you Thomas Young?”  It’s two years later and not so many people are doing it now.

Hopefully I can produce more of those big moments and do something worthy of getting people’s attention again. Winning double gold would certainly help to build greater awareness of my achievements and to start building a legacy in para sport.

Paris will be very close to a home Games. I won my Tokyo gold behind closed doors and after missing out last year, I cannot wait to go for gold in front of a crowd.

Since I’ve been involved in para athletics I do think things have moved on but I think the No.1 item on many para athletes’ wish list would be the chance to compete at a high level more often.

There are undoubtedly more competition opportunities outside of the championships and the most high profile of those have come at the British Diamond Leagues in London, Gateshead and Birmingham, plus there are medal events at the British Championships every year, so progress is being made.

I recognise World Athletics and the IPC are different federations but what I’d like to see is World Athletics and the IPC having more conversations around not just incorporating more para events into more Diamond Leagues and Continental Tours but also making a concerted effort to include the field events because we haven’t really seen that before and so many field athletes want to be in that environment.

Years ago the ambulant and wheelchair athletes wanted to be more involved. British Athletics supported our wish and now we’re really, really happy that we have a chance to go to these events in the UK. The field athletes really deserve the same opportunities. I’d also love to have more opportunities on the international circuit alongside our able-bodied peers.

It can’t change overnight, and I’m not expecting things to go immediately from nothing to a lot, but I think it is starting to gradually improve and there’s no doubt that the landscape is different now, with more athletes getting professional contracts and the sport really starting to diversify.

The work isn’t done, though, and I won’t be the only para athlete you’ll hear talking about the importance of gaining as much exposure as possible in the public eye. We have more para athletes in the media now than ever before, with the likes of Jonathan Broom-Edwards, Libby Clegg, Steph Reid and Jonnie Peacock getting involved in TV programmes such as Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins, Dancing on Ice and Strictly. That has made a huge impact but, in my view, there are still some major misconceptions around para athletes.

I think there is a still a tendency for people to view all para athletes in the same way, and to  put us all under the same umbrella, which is unfair. There is a tendency to be judgemental and to assume, for example, that every para athlete has some sort of mental impairment or learning disability.

Now some athletes do have those issues to contend with, of course, and there’s nothing wrong with having a learning disability, but I do wish some people would not be so quick to judge. I also believe many of the general public’s first assumption is still that the Paralympic Games is for those with an amputation or a wheelchair.

The dream scenario is to be viewed as an athlete first. We have incredible sportspeople out there doing incredible things and I’d love to see them being judged on their sporting performances above anything else. Paralympics is such a proud word but it would be great to be seen as an athlete above all.

I think it’s easy to forget, too, that you still have to be extremely good to do well in para sport. In our various categories, we are still world class athletes. We’re still putting in the same effort as the everybody else is, we’re still training, we’re still racing, we’re still making sacrifices, we’re still living our lives as elite athletes.

In my view there is still a public naivety about para sports and if we can just showcase ourselves to them and work more with the media to do that then more can be learned about us as people and athletes. So many people in the world have both visible and less visible impairments and it’s our role to inspire and empower them.

READ MORE: GB team for World Champs in Paris

More and more athletes are being encouraged to show what their lives look like behind the scenes and I would like to see us being able to tell our stories, to be able to express what our day-to-day lives are like and to have move connection to the wider public.

To get that attention, I of course understand that it helps to be doing well on the track, hence we need more high-profile opportunities. My immediate focus is on becoming a world champion for the first time, as I aspire to achieve the Grand Slam of all four international competition titles.

I learned a lot after missing the Commonwealth Games last year. It was first time dealing with injury [sustained from a fall at the end of a race just a few weeks before the Games] and then going through the recovery process.

Working with my group at Loughborough under my coach Joe McDonnell, things are now starting to look really exciting this year, I’ve changed so much and matured so much as a person and an athlete, even compared to just last year, and I know how much I can change next year in the lead-up to Paris. I’m getting older. I’m learning more.

I really want that world gold this time and then to defend my Paralympic title. The sport is getting quicker with more athletes coming into the sport and more athletes running faster. I’d really love the world record and also qualify outright for the British Championships.

If I manage that, then perhaps I’ll get stopped in the street again soon, too.

Thomas Young
Born: July 27, 2000
Events: 100m/200m
PB: 10.94/23.08
Achievements:
2021: Paralympics T38 100m gold; European Para Championships T38 100m gold
2019: World Para Championships T38 silver
2018: European Para Championships T38 100m gold and 200m gold