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Georgie Hermitage – “I Wouldn’t Be As Good An Athlete If I’d Known What Was ‘Wrong’ With Me”

Parasport athlete Georgina Hermitage recalls her experiences of growing up with a disability, but not seeing it as such…

Teachwire
by Teachwire
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I went to an all-girls Roman Catholic prep school but was never academically minded. I think my grandfather was trying to do the best for me by sending me there, but I just wasn’t an academic kid. Everything always revolved around sport – it was the only thing that relatively speaking I was naturally good at.

Of the teachers I had, my PE teacher at secondary school, Miss Lawrence, probably influenced me the most. She was always very supportive, and never drew much attention to my disability, I was just treated as a normal kid.

My mother brought me up calling my disability by its name – hemiplegia [a form of cerebral palsy affecting one side of the body] – but she never went into any great detail with me about what it was. She just told me I had a weak arm and a weak leg, but nothing serious. The word ‘disability’ was never used. I grew up knowing I was slightly different, but never saw it as anything major. I’d have physio once every two weeks and be looked after by doctors at the local hospital, but my mum used to just say it was a general check up.

Looking back, I was blissfully unaware of what must have gone on in the background. It wasn’t until I read my old medical records when going through the classification process in my 20s that I learned what my mum had had to go through and deal with.

At school I was just chucked in with everyone else and sent on my merry way. The staff were obviously aware, but it was really a case of sink or swim. Having now visited some schools and met children with disabilities, my view is that to an extent, yes, you should know what you have – but it’s also possible to overcompensate. I don’t think I’d be half as good as I am with my athletics now if I’d been fully aware of what was ‘wrong’ with me. I can see myself as wanting to have used it as a get-out clause for not doing certain things, as an excuse – but because of how I was brought up, I never had that excuse. It’s a difficult one.

Carrying on

When I was 14, I’d been at local athletics club for a couple of years. My disability was becoming more apparent as things got more competitive. I was starting to struggle, finding it hard to keep up with the able-bodied girls, which was when my coach suggested I could probably qualify as para athlete, and that was it [Hermitage proceed to quit athletics before returning 10 years later as a para athlete]. I’d been brought up to believe that what I had wasn’t a big deal. Why shouldn’t I have been able to carry on like everyone else?

14 is a hard age for a girl. All you want to do is fit in, disappear into the crowd with your friends and be a normal teenager. With the best intentions, she was highlighting the fact that I wasn’t ‘normal’. And rightly or wrongly, I didn’t take it very well.

Things didn’t change much for me personally after that, at least not straight away. In my world, all I was doing was blocking athletics off – ‘I’ve heard something I don’t like; all I want to do now is be with my friends and carry on’. So that’s what I did, and went on to leave school and later got a job. I feel that I now look at myself differently. I’m proud of my achievements, but I’m still not confident with certain things. It’s strange – when I first entered the para scene I’d never been around people using wheelchairs, living with cerebral palsy and whatever else, and I found it really hard. If it wasn’t for being the way I am, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I have, but it’s a double-edged sword.

If schools want to get disabled children more engaged with sport, the important thing is to make sure the parents are on board. Kids are only ever going to do the things their parents allow, so you’ve got to make everything really accessible and not put up any barriers.

I’m doing some work at the moment with the Superhero Tri Series [see cpsport.org] and a company in Surrey called Stonegate Homes. They’re setting up a service where they’re going to supply kids with wetsuits and arrange minibus travel, so that kids can get to training site. Parents won’t have the excuse of saying ‘It’s too far’ or ‘I can’t afford it.’ It’s just about making it all as accessible as possible.

Georgie Hermitage is a T37 para athlete, current holder of the 400m world record and two-time medallist at the Rio 2016 Paralympics in the 100m (gold) and T35-38 4 x100m (silver).

She is among the athletes participating in the World Para Athletics Championships taking place at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from 14th to 23rd July. Ticket prices start from £10 for adults, with entry for children up to 16 priced at £5. For more details, visit tickets.london2017athletics.com

A series of supporting school resources for ages 5 to 14, aimed at motivating and engaging young people’s interest in sport, can be downloaded for free from london2017athletics.com

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