SAMMI Kinghorn isn’t one to rest on her laurels. A double Paralympic medallist and three-time world champion, the 28-year-old wheelchair racer has spent more than a decade blazing a trail on the international athletics stage.
She has racked up impressive podium finishes, blistering world records and a raft of other stellar achievements, yet Kinghorn, who grew up near Gordon in the Scottish Borders, remains laser-focused on what comes next: even bigger and bolder goals.
This month will see Kinghorn compete in her third Paralympic Games when she heads to Paris to contest medals in the T53 100m, 400m, 800m and 1500m, as well as the universal 4x100m relay.
‘It is crazy,’ she says, reflecting on this landmark. ‘I’ve had such different experiences at every Paralympic Games. Rio was my first one and I was very young and terrified. Tokyo, obviously, there was no one there to celebrate my first ever podium at a Paralympics, which was really sad.
‘This time I’m older and hopefully wiser. I’m excited to have my friends and family in Paris, so that is really cool. I also can’t believe this is my third one.’
The athletics action is set to get under way on the lavender-hued track at the Stade de France on Thursday.
Kinghorn celebrates winning a 100m – T53 bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo
Kinghorn poses on the podium with the bronze medal she won at the Tokyo Games in 2021
Kinghorn’s medals include an MBE, which she received at the Palace of Holyroodhouse
‘The 100m will probably be the main one for me,’ says Kinghorn. ‘But I will be targeting a medal in all of them.
‘I’m going to have a very busy programme. You never know when it is going to be your last Games, so I’m like: “Let’s just give it a shot and see what happens”.
Kinghorn goes into these Paralympics in what is arguably the best form of her athletics career to date. This year has seen her post personal-best times across almost every distance, including 100m (15.39), 400m (51.40) and 800m (1:41.50).
She set a new world record over 1500m in February (since bettered by Catherine Debrunner), clocking 3:07.53 at the Sharjah International Open Para Athletics Meeting (followed by a further PB of 3:06.47 at the ParAthletics 2024 WPA Grand Prix in June).
Cheshire-based Kinghorn is aware that a fierce battle awaits in Paris. Among her rivals will be the Swiss powerhouse Debrunner, a five-time world champion on the track and a winner of Berlin, Chicago, New York and London marathons.
Other names to look out for include Australia’s Madison de Rozario and the Chinese duo Gao Fang and Zhou Hongzhuan, all well-versed in podium finishes at top level.
Kinghorn admits that her competitors do occasionally creep into her thoughts as she makes her final Paralympic preparations.
‘It is hard not to think about them and what they are doing,’ she says. ‘The T53, which is my classification, how fast it is right now because of Catherine, is quite terrifying. All the world records in my classification are faster than the world records in the T54.
‘Which is making it very difficult, but also making the sport very exciting because she is doing times that nobody really thought was possible. It is going to be tough.’
Kinghorn, coached by Rodger Harkins who previously worked with retired 400m star Lee McConnell, is candid about her mindset going into the Paralympics.
‘It is incredible to win medals but there are only three,’ she says. ‘If you are pinning your whole life and happiness on winning one of those three medals, it’s probably not going to leave you feeling very good if you don’t win.
‘Instead, I try to focus on knowing I can go faster and that is exciting. I want to see how far I can push my body and how fast it can go but try not to get too hooked up on medals.
‘I will be satisfied when I become Paralympic champion. Obviously, I believe I can be. But it might not happen and I don’t want to pin all my happiness on that.’
Then there is the inevitable question: post-Paris, what comes next? Kinghorn already has some ideas. ‘It is my third Paralympics, so the temptation to take a little bit of time off afterwards is definitely there,’ she muses.
‘I’m thinking that maybe next year I might do some marathons. It is the pressure on the track that I struggle with the most, whereas on the road, I definitely feel like there is a lot less pressure and different people win every race because each race doesn’t suit every racer.’
Kinghorn was 14 when she was paralysed from the waist down after an accident on her family’s farm in 2010, crushed by a forklift while helping to clear snow.
It has long been her hope that as her athletics career progressed, this life-altering event wouldn’t be the first thing she was asked about. Has that come to pass?
‘Some people definitely still want to ask about it,’ says Kinghorn. ‘But I would say it is a lot less. The thing is, I’m happy sharing my story. It is not something that I don’t want to share. I enjoy telling people the things I learned through that process and the things my family learned.
‘But that is not the thing I want to be remembered for, so it always being the start of any interview, I’m a bit like: “that’s not me now…”
‘This year is going to be 14 years since the accident. So, I was able to feel my legs and walk for 14 years and have now been in a wheelchair for 14 years. I think this is quite a strange milestone.
‘Because I still think I’m quite new to wheelchair life and still learning but actually, no, I have now been in a wheelchair for just as long as I have walked.’
Discussing this brings into sharp focus how differently things could have panned out. ‘That is the big thing sport has done for me; helping me accept it,’ she says. ‘If I hadn’t done sport, I don’t know where my headspace would be or what I would be doing now.
‘Sport has been the best thing for me. I have got to meet people like myself, travel the world and find different ways to keep fit and healthy, which is definitely a lot harder when you are sitting down all the time.
‘It is weird because I still dream standing. But every now and again my wheelchair is in it and that is something quite new. Sometimes I’m carrying it; sometimes it is in the car. I dream about me in my racing chair — just not in my day chair.’
Alongside athletics, Kinghorn is carving a successful parallel career as a TV presenter and has become a regular face on the popular BBC series Countryfile.
‘I absolutely love it,’ she says. ‘I feel so lucky with the opportunities I have been given and definitely grabbed them with both hands. Although I’m the presenter, it is nice not being in the limelight and interviewing other people.
‘I feel it is quite natural for me to be the interviewer because I have been interviewed so many times and feel I know the questions which are quite jarring, so I try not to do that.’
It is a space she professes to feel hugely comfortable in. ‘You can just become “the athlete” and I never wanted to just be “the athlete”. I feel like Countryfile is a way to show another side of my personality than just being the girl who trains and races, so that has been awesome.’
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