I love watching sport. I play tennis and golf (badly) but I love to watch and I am a keen commentator, as readers of my Soccer Special blog will know.

Like so many of my generation, great Olympians from David Hemery, Mary Peters and Brendan Foster to Linford Christie are permanently etched in the memory. Classic sporting moments in massive arenas, packed to capacity and beamed to hundreds of millions worldwide, replayed on satellite channels and DVD players daily. Truly, they are sporting icons of their generation.

I read in Metro recently about Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson's retirement at the age of 37. From her wheelchair she became Britain's most successful Paralympian ever, winning eleven gold and four silver medals, plus one bronze. She also won six London Marathons. She is one of the few Paralympians I suspect that people would be able to name - and her recognition is to be applauded.

But do we really elevate Tanni's fantastic achivements to the iconic status of Olympians? Of course we don't. We should look at our own physical and mental capabilities and take a look at someone disadvantaged who rose beyond her physical attributes and became an Olympic champion where so many of us would have literally fallen by the wayside. But we don't like to think about disability and sport in the same breath. It makes us feel uncomfortable (apart from at celebratory events such as Sports Personality of the Year).

Courage and determination are not words that sit comfortably with disability or para... Unfortunately we are trained to see phrases first and words second. Thankfully this great sportswoman focused on 'first' while almost all of us languish way behind in 'second.'

This article was first posted in BookMark. For all Fen Creative material please go to http://www.fencreative.co.uk