Road to Paralympics

James Middlehurst in Year 11 had a hugely successful British Open Fencing Championships, held in Sheffield on 5 and 6 July, coming away with six medals.

Born with deformities in both legs, James spent his early childhood in hospital undergoing surgery to try to correct Clubfoot in both feet, eventually undergoing an amputation at the age of one so he could use a prosthetic leg to walk on.

He can’t ride a bike or play first team sports at school like his able-bodied counterparts but James has always cheerfully ignored the limitations of having one leg and got on with whatever sport he could, playing Amputee Football on his crutches and Wheelchair Tennis alongside his favourite - Wheelchair Fencing.

It all began with an Easter ‘Fencing For Fun’ camp during his primary school holidays at Marlow’s Longridge Activity Centre that sealed his love for the niche sport more than anything else. Hundreds of years on from the ancient military discipline that obsessed French and Italian aristocrats - an 8 year old, Star Wars-obsessed James saw fencing as real-life fighting with light-sabers!

It’s very much a different sort of ‘saber’ now, with three weapon categories to fence in - Sabre, Foil and Epee - as well as James strapping himself into a wheelchair held firm on a specialised frame, as his performance pathway towards professional Paralympic competition. 

Winning Gold in the Men’s Wheelchair Fencing final in Scotland in December was tough, he was up against the best and also came back from a sobering 5-0 loss at the beginning ‘poules' rounds to swipe overall champion in the Mixed category. Better yet, James bagged two Gold, a Silver and three Bronze medals at the Sheffield Open earlier this month.

The most promising news however came without medals at the Paralympic wheelchair fencing training camp in Bath last weekend - as James was scouted to train alongside current Paralympic champions starting in September.

LA 2028 and then Brisbane 2032 are now the Paralympic competitions James has in his crosshairs - he’ll be 20, and 24 years old. This weekend’s fantastic news is just one small step in his fight to get there. En guarde!