Disability Sport Wales
Chwaraeon Anabledd Cymru

BLOG 1. Caroline Matthews - The Long Road to Beijing

Today we begin our cycle leading upto Beijing 2008 with a weekly blog from our very own Welsh & GB Womens Wheelchair Basketballer Caroline Matthews!!

Caroline has agreed to feed our brains on a regular basis with an all new (for our website!) blog in our news section. Caroline’s blog will provide the readers with an amazing insight into what life is really like for world class athletes when juggling everyday life for a high performance sport.

Caroline hopes that her blogs will help inspire some of our very own academy athletes continue focusing on their goals, because as Caroline has experienced year after year & again on return from the Europeans this year, balanced training and preparation along with the right level of determination goes along way to help athletes reap the rewards.

Blog 1 – The preparation begins

Its been a little over a month since the GB Womens Wheelchair Basketball team beat Spain for third place at the European Championships in Wetzlar, Germany. This didn’t just mean a bronze medal…it also meant that the GB Women have qualified for the Beijing Paralympics 2008 – so it was doubly a cause for major celebration!

The sheer joy of winning that medal and qualification left me with a permanent smile on my face for at least a week after we got home…its always nice to come back to work with something to show for all my hard work and effort. I work full time as a lawyer in the public sector – and REALLY love my job. The work is diverse and interesting – although the hours sometimes dictate when I can train. Its extremely hard to work full time and train like a professional athlete….not that I am complaining – the opportunity to wear a vest with “Great Britain” on it is worth all the hard work.

Its always quite hard when you first get back from a major tournament like that – you miss your team mates and its very strange to have been working together in a close knit group of people towards such a big goal and then come back to reality – and Monday morning in the office with people who don’t know what you have just been through! The post-tournament blues – when you go back to real life – can be quite a surprise!

So, after rewarding myself a whole week off training (shock horror!) after Germany, I launched back into my usual training regime. I am lucky that there is a gym in the building I work in – as I am able to get a lot of my daily training routine out of the way at lunchtime…which leaves me more “spare” time in the evening to do normal things (like go to the cinema every now and again!). I also train in my wheelchair three times a week – so “spare” time is really at a premium with me!

Check out the Cardiff Celts website to find out more about wheelchair basketball and don’t forgot to come back next month for Caroline’s 2nd blog.
www.cardiffwheelchairbasketball.co.uk

If you have any questions about these blogs or if you would like to add your own comments below a blog, please email admin support who will be happy to help.

office@fdsw.org.uk or call 02920 665 781

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