Paul Blake
Sport: Athletics
Event: T36 400m and 800m
Date and Place of Birth: 1990, Dorcester, UK
Coached by: Rob Ellchuk
Biography:
Paul, who has cerebral palsy, has been competing in athletics since 2009 and is coached by Rob Ellchuk at the University of Bath.
His mother, Kate, is a former ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet, while his father, also called Paul, is an actor best known for playing Greedo in Star Wars.
Coached by Rob Ellchuk at the University, Paul collected a brace of medals on his Paralympic Games debut at London 2012 – a silver in the T36 400m and a bronze in the T36 800m.
The Bath-based athlete excelled in front of a crowd of 80,000 people in the Olympic Stadium to add two medals to the three he won on his IPC World Championships debut in New Zealand in 2011.
Paul received an honorary blue at the 2011 Blues Award ceremony in recognition of his World Championships performance at which he struck gold over 400m and won a pair of silvers for the 800m and 1500m in Christchurch. Later that year he set a world record of 2:08.02 for the T36 800m at the British Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in August 2011.
Rio 2016
Paul cemented his position as a Paralympic Games icon when he bettered his London 2012 silver to clinch gold in the T36 400m at Rio.
He stormed away from the field in the last 100m to win in a season’s best time of 54.49secs.
Paul followed that up with silver in the T36 800m event in Brazil, falling short only to a new world record set by Australia’s James Turner.
Two medals in Rio took Paul’s Paralympics total to four medals at the age of just 26.
Career highlights:
2011: 400m gold plus 800m and 1,500m silver in the T36 classification at the IPC World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.
2012: T36 400m silver and 800m bronze at the London 2012 Paralympic Games; T36 400m silver at the IPC European Championships.
2013: 800m gold and 400m silver in the T36 classification at the IPC World Championships in Lyon, France.
2014: 400m silver and 100m bronze in the T36 classification at the IPC European Championships.
2015: 800m gold and 400m silver in the T36 classification at the IPC World Championships in Doha, Qatar – also co-captained the Great Britain team at the event.
2016: T36 400m gold and 800m silver at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games
Power of 10 profile: Paul Blake
