Take your marks, set, GO! Every four years athletes from all around the world come together to compete at the largest sports festival on the planet known as the Olympic Games. New Zealand has SO many great sportspeople and if you search up who is our greatest Olympian of all time, up pops Lisa Carrington, our amazing kayak sprinter who has won 6 Olympic medals. What if I told you that we had an Olympian from New Zealand who has won 19 Olympic medals for our little country. Yes 19!!! She’s my favourite athlete, and I believe she’s a total inspiration, I think she’s ALWAYS going for gold! Her name is Sophie Pascoe.
Today I am going to tell you a bit about Sophie Pascoe and why I think that SHE should be given that special title of New Zealand’s most decorated Olympian, which is currently held by Lisa Carrington. Sophie Pascoe is 31 years old and she lives in Christchurch. She is a swimmer and competes at the Paralympic Games every four years. When she was just two, she lost her leg in an accident where a lawn mower ran her over. She began swimming when she was 7 to help with her recovery. Aged just 15, Sophie was the youngest member of the New Zealand team at Beijing in 2008 where she won 3 golds and 1 silver in the Water Cube. Since then, she has won 6 medals in London in 2012, 5 medals in Rio in 2016, and 4 medals in Tokyo this year. Sophie is just as successful as our greatest able bodied Olympians - well actually if you count her medals, she’s even more successful! So why do we not call HER our most decorated Olympian
To be so successful, Sophie has to work very hard and she trains for hours and hours a week. The Paralympics involves a range of Paralympians who are so inspirational, and have overcome obstacles in their lives. I know how hard it is to swim with two legs, so imagine swimming with just one! Sophie must have to train so much harder. If any of you have watched Sophie race, you will know that she gives every race all she’s got and is always going for that gold medal! Surely she deserves to be called New Zealand’s most decorated Olympian right?
Now, I know most of us watched at least some of the events at this year's Tokyo Olympics. I bet not as many of us watched the athletes compete at the Paralympics which were just a couple of weeks later. I think that it’s about time that the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games were combined and held as a single event so that our Paralympians would get the recognition that they deserve and they would be seen more as equals to our Olympians. Just imagine if the two events were combined… with Sophie on the team going for gold and adding her medals to New Zealand’s tally we would surely win!
Maybe if that happened then Sophie WOULD be known as our most decorated Olympian ever!
I hope by now I have convinced you that Sophie Pascoe is our most successful Olympian ever and just because she lost her leg in an accident, doesn’t mean that she should be forgotten about. She’s my favourite Olympian, she’s definitely New Zealand’s most successful Olympian ever, and I can not wait to see her GOING FOR GOLD in Paris in 2024!!!
This is my speech 2021. It is about why I think that Sophie pascoe should be given the title of New Zealand's most successful olympian.I hope you like it. THE END