Elizabeth Gemma Clegg (born 24 March 1990) is a British Paralympic sprinter and

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

track cyclist who has represented both Scotland and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

at international events. She represented Great Britain in the T12 100m and 200m at the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China, from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...

, winning a silver medal in the T12 100m race. She won Gold in Rio at the

2016 Paralympic Games The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

in 100m T11 where she broke the world record and T11 200m, beating the previous Paralympic record in the process, thus making her a double Paralympic champion.

Early life

Clegg was born in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, before moving to

Newcastleton Newcastleton, also called Copshaw Holm, is a village in Liddesdale, the Scottish Borders, a few miles from the border with England, on the Liddel Water. It is within the Counties of Scotland, county of Roxburghshire. It is the site of Hermitag ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. She attended the Royal Blind School in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Athletics career

Clegg has a deteriorating eye condition known as Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy disease giving her only slight peripheral vision in her left eye – she is registered blind. Clegg runs with the aid of guide runner Chris Clarke. She took up athletics aged 9, joining Macclesfield Harriers AC. She originally tried middle-distance running and cross country before starting sprinting. In 2006, she competed at the IPC World Championships, winning a silver medal in the T12 200 metres. This was followed by an appearance at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she won a silver medal in the 100 metres. From 2006 until 2010 her guide runner was Lincoln Asquith. In January 2011, she competed in the IPC World Championships. Whilst there she took a bronze in the 200m. Clegg is a Paralympic silver medallist and current World Champion in the T12 100m and 200m sprints. She was one of the major success stories from the 2011 IPC World Championships in New Zealand and IBSA World Championships in Turkey. In June 2012, Clegg won the 100m and 200m at the IPC Athletics European Championships. Clegg won silver at the

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

on 2 September 2012 in the T12 100m. Clegg and guide Mikail Huggins broke the European record in the final. In October 2012, Clegg won "Para Athlete of the Year" at the

Scottish Athletics Scottish Athletics, stylised as scottishathletics, is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Scotland. As such it is responsible for organising annual championships, maintaining rules for competition and ratifying records. It also selec ...

awards and was presented with her award by fellow GB Paralympian David Weir. She won the award again in October 2013. In 2013, Clegg won double silver at the IPC World Championships in Lyon clocking 12.23 and 25.31 over 100m and 200m respectively. Clegg is sponsored by the property marketing business ESPC where she participated in work experience in 2008 during her time at The Royal Blind School. Clegg has two brothers who have also competed at the Paralympics:

James James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

, who competed in the pool in the S12 category at London 2012, and

Stephen Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

, who also swam in the same class at

Rio 2016 The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

and

Tokyo 2020 The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. Clegg won the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

T11/T12 100m with a run of 12.20 seconds, a world-leading time for the year. Due to illness, she was unable to defend her European titles in Swansea shortly after the Commonwealth games. She split with guide runner Mikhail Huggins in 2015. Her new guide runner is Chris Clarke. She was also made to withdraw from the

2015 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships were a Paralympic track and field meet organized by the World Para Athletics subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee. The event was the 7th edition of what is now known as the World Para ...

after just one race due to an ankle injury and this also meant that she lost funding from

British Athletics UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics (sport), athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics o ...

. In 2016, she was reclassified as a T11 athlete due to her deteriorating eye condition, requiring her to wear a blindfold while racing. Alongside guide Chris Clarke she won the T11 100m title and 200m title at the 2016 Paralympics. Clegg was late addition to the British team for the postponed

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the Inte ...

in Tokyo on 21 July 2021. The other additions were

Jonnie Peacock Jonathan Peacock (born 28 May 1993) is an English sprint runner... An amputee, Peacock won gold at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics, representing Great Britain in the T44 men's 100 metres event. He won a bronze medal ...

Kadeena Cox Kadeena Cox (born 10 March 1991) is a parasport athlete competing in T38 para-athletics sprint events and C4 para-cycling and British television presenter. She was part of the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships and the 2016 UCI Para-cyc ...

and David Weir. She is trained by Joe McDonnell. In June 2022 she appeared as guest presenter on an episode of ''

The Gadget Show ''The Gadget Show'' is a British television series which focuses on consumer technology. The show, which was broadcast on Channel 5, is presented by Ortis Deley, with reports from Georgie Barrat and Jon Bentley. Originally a thirty-minute ...

'' while

Georgie Barrat Georgie Barrat is a British tech journalist and television presenter, best known as a presenter on ''The Gadget Show''. Early life Barrat graduated from King's College London with a degree in English Literature. She later gained a diploma in ...

was on maternity leave.

Cycling career

In 2022, Clegg switched from

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

. She competed in

cycling at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Cycling at the Commonwealth Games, Cycling at the 2022 Commonwealth Games was held between 29 July and 7 August 2022 at four different venues. There were 26 events altogether in cycling, making the sport third-highest in terms of number of med ...

, finishing 4th in the women's tandem 1 km time trial B and women's tandem sprint B events. In October 2022, Clegg and James Ball earned a gold medal for Great Britain in the mixed

team sprint The team sprint (also sometimes known as the Olympic sprint) is a track cycling event. Despite its name, it is not a conventional cycling sprint event – it is a three-rider team time trial held over three laps of a velodrome. The riders use a ...

event at the 2022 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships.

Honours

Clegg was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

list for services to athletics and charity. Clegg has been awarded ''

'' Athlete of the Year a record seven times (in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016). She has also been awarded the ''Scottish Disability Sport'' Athlete of the Year for

(the Findlay Calder Trophy) a record six times (in 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016). She was also voted ''SDS'' Athletes' Athlete of the Year (the Gordon Brown Trophy) for

parasports Parasports are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. Some parasports are forms of adapted physical activities from existing non-disabled sports, while others have been specifically created f ...

by her peers in 2012.

Personal life

In October 2018, Clegg announced she was expecting her first child with fiancé Dan Powell in March 2019. They were engaged in October 2017. She has had physical injuries and has been affected by

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

issues. Her

guide dog Guide dogs (colloquially known in the US as seeing-eye dogs) are assistance dogs trained to lead people who are blind or visually impaired around obstacles. Although dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are red–green c ...

is called Bramble. In April 2019 Clegg gave birth to a son, Edward, via emergency C-Section In September 2019 it was announced she would be the first blind contestant to star in the reality TV series ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series broadcast from 2006 to 2014 and then from 2018 to 2025. It was presented by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. Other previous hosts include Phillip Schofield and Christine Lampard. The series ...

''. She appeared in the show's 12th series in 2020 with partner Mark Hanretty, coming in third place. In January 2024, Clegg announced to her followers on Instagram that she had split from her husband and was now a ‘single mum’ stating that “2023 was one of the hardest years”. She has two brothers, James who won bronze in the pool at London 2012 Paralympics, and Stephen who became the first para swimmer in his class to break 28 seconds in the men’s 50m backstroke in 2023 and won the gold medal in the 100m backstroke at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, breaking the world record in the process.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clegg, Libby 1990 births Living people Scottish female sprinters British female sprinters Scottish female cyclists British female cyclists Scottish track cyclists British track cyclists Paralympic athletes for Great Britain Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic sprinters Scottish Paralympic competitors Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Scotland Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Cyclists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Medalists at the World Para Athletics Championships Medalists at the World Para Athletics European Championships Members of the Order of the British Empire Visually impaired sprinters People from Bollington Sportspeople from Cheshire Scottish blind people Anglo-Scots Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) 21st-century Scottish sportswomen