Tanni Grey-Thompson
The Reformer
Changing the system from inside it, principle turned into change.
Tanni Grey-Thompson exemplifies The Reformer, converting eleven Paralympic gold medals of hard-won credibility into sustained pressure on systems that exclude disabled people. In the House of Lords she has repeatedly challenged welfare legislation, transport accessibility failures and gaps in sports governance, often drawing on lived experience of inaccessible trains and venues to make abstract policy concrete.
“Fresh start was really important because I generally thought when I stopped competing, people stopped calling me the athlete and then just before the Tokyo Paralympic Games, I was filling my car with petrol and somebody said, oh, good luck to Tokyo. And it was like, I had this panic about what they meant. And it's all a bit complicated.”
“So after Paralympic athlete, wheelchair user competed in wheelchair racing, I competed at five Paralympic Games, seven World Championships, three Commonwealth Games, won 16 medals, and on retirement, I moved into politics and I'm now a crossbench here in the House of Lords, which means I'm not affiliated to a party, which the best and wor…”
“Habit because if you don't enjoy it, you keep putting off your goal to it next week, I'll do it next month, and I guess being an athlete, you can't do that. You have to do it every day.”
“I love working, whatever. And actually, if you love what you do, it doesn't feel like work. So, I mean, just I'm very privileged to get to have a second career that I love. I wouldn't say that necessarily when we're in the building. I'm in my office at the moment, you know, lovely wood panels.”
Pull up a Chair with Bina Mehta: “In conversation with Bina Mehta, Chair, KPMG UK”
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