Skip to main content
Media centre

Jade joins the shortlist for major national sporting honour

27 November 2014

 

Teesside University law student and Paralympian athlete Jade Jones is among contenders for this year’s BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Wheelchair racer Jade has been shortlisted alongside athlete Morgan Lake, gymnast Claudia Fragapane, para-swimmer Erraid Davies, golfer Bradley Neil and kayaker Rebeka Simon, diver Alicia Blagg, weightlifter Rebekah Tiler, para-cyclist Sophie Thornhill and gymnast Nile Wilson.

The winner will be announced live during the Sports Personality show on BBC One on 14 December.

Jade, 18, who is currently in the first year of a law degree at Teesside University, represented Great Britain at London 2012 and clinched a bronze medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

She is currently training for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio and looking even further ahead to the 2020 Paralympics to be staged in Tokyo.

Jade, who was born without a femur in her right leg and had her foot amputated when she was 10, is on the elite athlete scheme at Teesside University. The scheme provides student athletes with support to develop their individual sporting potential, including sports science, strength and conditioning and physiotherapy support.

Speaking when she started the law degree, Jade said: 'Ever since being young I have been interested in law and would always tell people I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up.

'Studying law at Teesside just seemed like a natural step. It is a fantastic university and I am really looking forward to the next three years.'

Jade was originally encouraged to try wheelchair racing when she met Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and her husband Ian at a sports development day. And with the guidance of Tanni and Ian, who is her coach, Jade began to take to racing and developed a natural flair which led her all the way to the London Paralympics.

She added: 'The facilities at Teesside University are incredible and the sports science support and strength and conditioning training are going to give me a real edge as I prepare for Rio.'


 
 
Go to top menu