Dame Sarah Storey is Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian, winning 17 gold, eight silver and three bronze medals. She was just 14 when she took two weeks off school to compete as a swimmer in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, where she won her first two gold medals. Since then, she has competed in a further seven Paralympics, switching to cycling from 2005. A TV documentary inspired Sarah's childhood ambition to take part in the Paralympics, even though her swimming club coach told her that it was too late - at the age of 10 - to start training for an elite career. After competing in four Paralympics in the pool, she decided to try cycling after persistent ear infections and chronic fatigue. She was immediately successful and has continued to win medals at both the Paralympics and World Championships in numerous events, breaking many world records. She is supported on and off the track by her husband, Barney Storey, who is also a gold medal-winning cyclist. They have two children, who were born in 2013 and 2017. Sarah is the Active Travel Commissioner in her home city of Manchester, and is still training with the aim of competing in the 2024 Paralympics in Paris – which would be her ninth games, at the age of 46. DISC ONE: Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi DISC TWO: Spinning Around – Kylie Minogue DISC THREE: It Only Takes a Minute - Take That DISC FOUR: A Different Beat - Boyzone DISC FIVE: This is the One - The Stone Roses DISC SIX: Heroes - David Bowie DISC SEVEN: Wannabe - Spice Girls DISC EIGHT: Step On – Happy Mondays BOOK CHOICE: The Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve Peters LUXURY ITEM: A snorkel and mask CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor
BBC sounds music Radio podcasts hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
My castaway this week is Britain's most decorated paralympic athlete, Dame Sarah Story.
Her medal hall is gargantuan.
17 Olympic gold medals, eight silvers and three bronzes for both swimming and cycling, brought home from eight Olympic Games during an elite sporting career that so far spanned an incredible 30 years, starting when she was just 14.
On top of that are her world championship titles, 43 of them and her 77 world records.
Her recent victories have been notched up after giving birth to two children and while working at the grassroots as active travel commissioner in her home city of Manchester, the road to success hasn't been smooth.
Her early achievements marked her out as a target for jealous school bullies.
She battled disordered eating and chronic fatigue syndrome in her teens, as well as the ear problems that threatened her hearing and prompted her to switch from the pool to the bike.
Through it all, she says, I just wanted to be a british athlete.
I couldn't have imagined having eight games, let alone winning medals at every games and 17 of those medals being gold.
It's the dream I didn't have coming true.
Dame Sarah story, welcome to Desert island Discs.
Thank you very much.
So, Sarah, let's start in that moment on the podium after a win, better qualified than pretty much anyone to tell us how it feels standing there hearing the national anthem.
It's a moment where you get goosebumps.
It's really difficult to explain.
And it's actually one of the reasons I wanted to become an athlete, because when I was watching the 1984 Olympic Games, I was listening to athletes trying to explain it to me as a six year old, and I was not really getting what they were saying.