Shelly talks about what it is like to train as a Paralympic athlete preparing for London 2012.
I enjoy wheelchair racing because you get to go fast, it’s really challenging. You have to have good endurance, you have to have the power and strength, but also it’s quite tactical as well, so it’s kind of a thinkers’ game.
I train every day apart from Sundays. It ranges from gym sessions, to road sessions, to track. Working on your speed, your power and your endurance as well, so it is pretty full on.
I eat a lot, you have to keep a healthy diet. In terms of training I eat a lot of carbohydrates to make sure I’m fuelled enough to get me through the sessions, especially when they’re really tough. And afterwards I’ll eat a lot of protein to help the muscles rebuild from all the work that you’ve just done.
If I wasn’t an athlete, I don’t know what I’d do, but I always fancied being a doctor or a CSI. But knowing me, I’d probably go in the crime scene and wreck all the evidence!
The next few years are just all about preparing for 2012 and making sure I’m in the best shape I can possibly be in. For me as an athlete, I go out there, and I train to be the best I can be, and that’s what all the Paralympians do, so I think Paralympics is supposed to be parallel to the Olympics. The athletes are at such a high level, that they’re just as talented as the Olympic athletes. So I don’t there’s much difference at all.
Every time I raced a final in Beijing, there were 80,000 people in the stadium. The crowd was just so, like, electric, you couldn’t hear yourself. You can only imagine you being in your home country, and those people cheering for you, so I’m really excited about it.
I’d just say to everyone out there, get behind it, and just get in the Games mood, because it’s going to be huge, and it’s a really exciting thing and it doesn’t come along very often.
If I can win Gold in London, that would be the ultimate thing for me, in my career.
