As part as the Sky Sports Living for Sport Programme we had Aaron Phipps visit our school. He was interviewed by our School Sports Journalists. This is one of our journalists final report.
Written by India (year 7)
Aaron Phipps
Aaron Phipps is a player
on the GB Paralympics rugby
wheelchair squad. He represented his country for the London Paralympics 2012!
His biggest achievement was getting a silver medal in the GB cup and the
European Cup.
How did
he become disabled?
Aaron was an able bodied person for most of his youth and
took a keen interest in extreme sports such as rollerblading,
skateboarding and BMX riding, as well as playing Basketball for Testwood
Secondary School, Totton.
However on January, when Aaron was just 15, Aaron contracted
Meningitis C and Meningococcal septicaemia (blood poisoning).. Aaron’s life had
turned upside down and after being in a coma for two weeks, both his legs
and most of his fingers had to be amputated in March of the same year. In total
Aaron was in hospital for a year recovering and rehabilitating as he
adapted to the life changing situation thrown at him. Eight months after being
discharged, Aaron enrolled at Totton College in an attempt to gain A level
qualifications as his life returned to some kind of normality
How did
he get into wheelchair rugby?
‘Well my wife was in west quay and she saw people doing
wheelchair racing and she thought it looked good so she had to practically pull
me along to one of the sessions – well it was the best thing I ever did!’
When Aaron was doing an event he met some people who
did wheelchair rugby and they told him
to come along. That night he watched it on YouTube and said ‘that looks
bonkers!’ Once he started playing in the GB squad he never wanted to go back.
They said ‘if you work really hard than you could be playing in the London
Paralympics.’
What training does he do?
‘Well I had to train for six days a week between 5-9am as I
have to juggle this as well as a full time job.’
Aaron works in partnership with Solent University - the
people in the sport and science department make him a macro cycle ( a time
table). So one day he might be doing weights the other day he might be doing
throwing. You can’t be the fittest you
possible can be all your life – you have your ups and downs so the cycle works
so you will be the fittest you possibly can be in a big match (e.g: London
Paralympics).
What is
his best sporting moment?
Playing at the Paralympics games in front of 10,000 people – it was amazing almost the
whole stadium sold out!
Also just being at the opening ceremony with 85,000 people
and seeing amazing people like Ellie Simpson just a couple of meters away!”
What is his favourite sport?
His favourite sport are extreme sports such as rollerblading
and skate boarding and when he was a kid he used to spend hours on the tracks
just practising.
“But I liked most sports and I think you have to go out of
your comfort zone to find a sport that you really enjoy like what I did!”
What are his hopes and ambitions for the future?
Aaron has a young family so he will manly be based around
that but he is thinking about doing some challenges for charity. He can’t tell
us what he is doing though as it isn’t definite and it would spoil the surprise
for us!
Lets hope we see lots more of Aaron in the future and find
out what challenges he may be up to!
