By Lucy Wilde
Teenage skiing sensation Amy Clegg has been selected for a prestigious sporting programme and will follow Paralympic greats Ellie Simmonds, Hollie Arnold, and Ade Adepitan.
The 19-year-old only started skiing competitively two years ago to enable her to go on a school skiing trip but is now part of Team GB’s para-development team and on track to compete in the 2030 Paralympics, spurred on by support from charity SportsAid.
Despite being born 11 weeks premature – weighing less than a bag of sugar – having to learn to adapt to profound deafness and living with cerebral palsy, Clegg has always known what she wanted from life.
“I knew from the age of five that I wanted to be in the Paralympics. I said I would try every sport until I found one that was for me,” she said.
“I was the most active child ever. I did trampoline, rock climbing and swimming, but once I got into skiing I developed such a passion for it. I fell completely in love with it.”
It was a chance encounter with some GB development coaches at a local event a short while into her skiing journey that changed everything for the Salford-born teenager.
“I showed them a video of me, and they said: ‘How the hell did we miss you?’ I was completely shocked by their reaction,” she recalled. They asked me if I wanted to join the GB development squad and I said oh go on then. I could never ever have imagined that would happen to me.”
Fast-forward just a few years and while Clegg has always believed she could go far on the slopes, it’s the lessons she’s learnt away from the snow-filled training scenes that have surprised her.
“Skiing has had such an impact on me outside of just being on the slopes. Before I wasn’t very good at walking but now I can walk unassisted. Only last year I could lift 6kg but now I can lift 55kg,” she said.
“I also wasn’t used to being away from home, I would call my parents all the time, but learning to be independent at training camps has really improved me as a person.
“Skiing has also taught me it’s important not to rush. I have to enjoy the journey and just do my best – not let the bad days affect me.”
SportsAid supports over 1,000 athletes each year – the vast majority aged 12 to 18 – by providing them with a financial award to help towards training and competition costs. This acts as a real motivational boost as it is often the first recognition they receive outside of their support network. Most of them rely heavily on their parents as they have no other funding.
These athletes are Great Britain’s brightest sporting prospects. They are nominated to SportsAid by the national governing bodies of more than 60 sports based on set criteria from each. The typical value of a SportsAid award is £1,000 with money generated through a combination of commercial partnerships, trust and charitable funds, and fundraising activities.
Clegg said: “I have to pay more than anyone on my team. I fall a lot, so I need to have a helper who comes with me onto the slopes. They are volunteers so the funding from SportsAid means they can come on training camps with me and help whenever they can.
“I do a lot of my training in Europe as obviously you have to travel to get to the slopes, but a week or two-week training camp can be as much as £4000. That makes it very hard financially.
“In my house there’s always a lot of money going out to help me and never much coming in.”
Entain, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, is proud to be championing the next generation of British sporting heroes by providing talented young athletes with financial support and personal development opportunities in partnership with SportsAid. Visit entaingroup.com to find out more.