British Paralympic Swimmer Visits The OPS

Published by The Oratory Prep School on Thursday 1st of December 2022

Today, we welcomed British Paralympic swimmer, Stephanie Millward, into school to talk to our Reception – Year 8 pupils.

Stephanie gave an inspiring talk about her incredible swimming career, which began at the age of 4, as she pursed her dream of competing in the 2000 Summer Olympics. At the age of 17, Stephanie was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and in her own words “wasn’t going to let illness defeat her.”

Her focus then moved towards qualifying for the Paralympics, which she did in 2008. Stephanie won her first Paralympic medal (Silver) at the London 2012 Summer Paralympics and then her first Paralympic Gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. During her swimming career, Stephanie won 734 medals in total, achieved a World Record (WR), and she was awarded an MBE in 2017.

During her talk, Stephanie gave our pupils some fantastic advice including “if you want to do anything, you have to do it for yourself” and children were fascinated to learn that the Rio Paralympic medals, when shaken, make different noises relating to Gold, Silver and Bronze, so that blind competitors can differentiate the colours.

Pupils also had the opportunity to watch her Gold winning swim and participate in a Q&A with Stephanie. At the end of her talk, pupils were invited to come up onto the stage and take a look at her Paralympic medals and hold the Paralympic baton that she carried.

Thank you Stephanie for such an inspirational morning.