Zak Skinner
Zak Skinner is a British paralympic adidas athlete who was born with a visual impairment. Zak has competed in the World Para-Athletic European Championships where he won gold in bo...
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What is your background in sport?
I'm Zach Skinner. I'm a Paralympic long jumper for Paralympics gp and I've been doing long jump a hundred metres now for six, seven years.
How did you get into long jump?
I actually started my athletics career quite late. I picked up rugby from a very early age. I think I played it from when I was nine. And then at school there was just a lunchtime club for athletics, which I just started going to out of pure interest for just love of sport. And that was my first stepping stone into the sport. I really enjoyed the black and white nature of athletics, being able to just have results and standards to compare yourself from, which was different to rugby, which is basically people's opinion. And then from there, that's snowballed to go to my local club, and that's where I found my love for long jump.
As an athlete, what is your proudest achievement?
My proudest achievement as an athlete has definitely been pushing through the injuries that I've managed to sustain. This year I went off the back of two severe hamstring tears and I'm proud of, to be honest, the work ethic I put in to bounce back and being told in February this year that I wasn't going to be able to make the world champs to then competing at the world champs and winning my first medal, I think was just a massive accomplishment for me and my team and the effort that we put through, we put in and the discipline that we showed.