Graeme Robert Ballard (born 16 June 1979) is an English

Paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

with

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

, who competes mainly in category T36 sprint events. Graeme was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. He competed in both the T36 100m and 200m in the

2004 Summer Paralympics The 2004 Summer Paralympics (), the 12th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Athens, Greece, from 17 to 28 September ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

winning the bronze medal in 200m. Four years later, he competed in the 100m, 200m and 400m but won the silver medal in the T36 100m in the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

. He has also competed for the national 7-a-side football team and competed at a national level in swimming. Graeme has the world record in T36 100m. He won two silver medals at the 2014

IPC Athletics European Championships The World Para Athletics European Championships (''European Para Athletics Championships''), known prior to 2018 as the IPC Athletics European Championships is an event organized by World Para Athletics Championships, World Para Athletics, the int ...

in the T36 100m and 200m in Swansea. He finished just ahead of his teammate Paul Blake in the 100m but on both occasions, the Briton was beaten to the gold medal by the Russian Evgenii Shvetcov. Ballard also reached the final of the 400m where he recorded a personal best of 57.18 to finish in fourth place. He placed fifth in the Rio Paralympic games with 12.84 seconds after a false start that disqualified another Ukrainian athlete and a new Paralympic record being set by a Malaysian athlete.

References

External links

profile on paralympic.org
Paralympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain British male sprinters English male sprinters Living people Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain 1979 births World record holders in para-athletics Track and field athletes with cerebral palsy Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the World Para Athletics Championships Medalists at the World Para Athletics European Championships Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes from Manchester {{UK-Paralympic-medalist-stub