Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson

One of Wales’s most successful athletes, Tanni Grey-Thompson won 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 Gold medals, over the course of a glittering 27 year career in top-flight athletics as a wheelchair racer. She twice achieved the feat of winning 4 Gold medals at a single Paralympic Games, first in Barcelona in 1992 and again in Sydney in 2000.

She held 30 world records at various distances, including being the first woman to complete 400m in under a minute. A World Champion on 5 occasions, Tanni won a further five other medals at World Championships. She was also won the London women’s wheelchair marathon on 6 occasions. She also won the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the year 3 times.

After her retirement from competition in 2007, she became a television presenter and a coach and mentor to young athletes, both disabled and able-bodied.

A politics graduate, she has been active in public life, working both in sports and public administration. Made a Dame in 2005, she was created a life-peer as Baroness Grey-Thompson in 2010 and sits in the House of Lords, active contributing to the work of the House.

Born in Cardiff, Tanni is an enthusiastic Welsh learner and was made a member of the Gorsedd in 2009. Her success broke down many barriers for disability sport in Wales and across the UK, and challenged people’s perceptions of disability, and she has been seen as a role model for aspiring athletes.