David Weir was born in Sutton in 1979 with a congenital spinal cord transection, preventing him from ever being able to use his legs. This lead him to pursue a career in wheelchair athletics and, despite frustrations caused by the lack of wheelchair-kind sports available during his school life, he still represented Sutton in the London Youth Games and won the London Marathon Junior Event no less than 7 times.
David Weir began competing in the Paralympic Games at Atlanta in 1996, however failed to win any medals in just 2 events. Nevertheless his spirit remained unbroken and he went on to achieve a total medal haul of 6 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals during the Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012) games. He also stormed to victory with 6 gold and 1 silver medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Assen, Netherlands (2006) and Christchurch, New Zealand (2011) and has won the London Marathon a record equalling 6 times, with a record breaking 7th victory being dashed by a fifth place finish, just 2 seconds behind the victor in 2010.
David has received numerous other awards and honours including the BBC London Disabled Athlete of the Year (2005, 2008), Individual Male Achievement Award (2005), Individual Male Athlete Award (2006), Best Performance Award (2006), Honorary Freeman of Sutton (2009), Member of the Order of the British Empire (2009) and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2013) as well as being inducted into the London Youth Games Hall of Fame in 2010.
David came to terms with his disadvantage at a very early age and used his determination to show the world that being ‘different’ doesn’t stop you from being the best.
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