PARALYMPIC SWIMMER OLLIE HYND: We must create chances for you to discover your passion

Swimming has always been a passion of mine but we didn’t necessarily have opportunities like this to try different things.

My inspiration came from my older brother Sam who was also a Paralympian.

He went to the 2008 Games, won a gold medal, and I was fortunate to go out to Beijing and watch.

Team GB’s Ollie Hynd was a Paralympic gold medallist at London 2012 in the swimming

Now Hynd (right) is trying to inspire a new generation in the ‘From Home 2 The Games’ scheme

Seeing it first hand, being in the Games environment, I wanted to be a part of that. Then, at London 2012, I managed to get on the team and win medals.

It was a dream come true. Now, obviously Tokyo is coming up so someone could be inspired by one of the athletes there.

To get people involved you need opportunities like this — to open people’s eyes to what is actually out there.

There might be something you’d never even imagined trying. You could have a really big passion for it. Particularly in para-sport, there are a lot of people who come to their sport late.

Hynd believes many aspiring athletes find that they take up sport too late in their lives

Everything comes down to opportunities and access to activity. We were working to improve that before the pandemic. Now, as restrictions open up and initiatives like this take place, it’s important to keep those opportunities going. If they’re there, I’m confident people will take them up.

There are almost two sides to this — finding future Olympians and Paralympians but almost more important is just being involved in sport, in a community, having a sense of purpose.

Something that’s very personal to me is getting anybody with an impairment active. And through the lockdowns, it’s been evident how important not just physical wellbeing but mental wellbeing is.

Sport really gives you that outlet to improve your mental health. You don’t have to aspire to be an Olympian or Paralympian.