Tara Flood
Personal information
BornPreston, Lancashire, Great Britain
Sport
Country United Kingdom
SportParalympic swimming
Disability classS2
Medal record
Paralympic swimming
Representing  United Kingdom
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place1992 BarcelonaWomen's 50m breaststroke SB2
Silver medal – second place1984 Stoke Mandeville / New YorkWomen's 25m freestyle L1
Silver medal – second place1992 BarcelonaWomen's 100m freestyle S3-4
Bronze medal – third place1984 Stoke Mandeville / New YorkWomen's 25m backstroke L1
Bronze medal – third place1988 SeoulWomen's 25m breaststroke L1
Bronze medal – third place1992 BarcelonaWomen's 50m freestyle S3-4
Bronze medal – third place1992 BarcelonaWomen's 4x50m medley S1-6

Tara Flood (born 1966) is a retired British Paralympic swimmer who competed in three Paralympic Games and winning seven medals. She was born without her forearms. She is now a disability rights activist.[1][2]

Personal life

Flood was born in Preston, Lancashire and was discriminated by her grandmother who often insulted her mother by saying "look what Sally's given birth to" which emotionally affected both Tara and her mother. Her mother had a nervous breakdown when Tara was two days old and was heavily sedated.[3][4]

She attended a residential special school at sixteen months to her sixteenth birthday in East Sussex.[5]

Swimming career

Flood's first experiences of being in the pool was when she was two or three years old, she was thrown into the pool and described "those of us that literally bobbed to the surface were just sort of like, oh great, let's really sort of get on, and those that didn't were just sort of pulled out".[6]

Flood began swimming aged five at her residential school where she took swimming lessons with other children who had similar disabilities to her. She began swimming competitively aged twelve then attended the 1984 Summer Paralympics in New York City aged thirteen.[7]

Disability rights activism

Flood works in London at as a disability activist and worked in various disability rights charities in the city. She was also involved with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and is campaigning to get the Convention fully implemented.[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ "Tara Flood - IPC Profile". International Paralympic Committee. 5 June 2020.
  2. ↑ "Interview with Tara Flood". Paralympic Heritage. 1 February 2013.
  3. ↑ "Grandma's Attitude". How Was School. 5 June 2020.
  4. ↑ "Something Terrible". How Was School. 5 June 2020.
  5. ↑ "School at Sixteen Months". How Was School. 5 June 2020.
  6. ↑ "Swimming Lessons". How Was School. 5 June 2020.
  7. ↑ "Normalising". How Was School. 5 June 2020.
  8. ↑ "The making of a champion". The Guardian. 6 August 2008.
  9. ↑ "Tara Flood - Trust for London". Trust for London. 5 June 2020.
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