Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, the woman who more than any other has elevated the status of Paralympic sport with the public, has been 
recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission for a peerage.
Grey-Thompson is Britain’s most successful Paralympian, and has been a regular supporter of SJA events, having won her first SJA Bill McGowran Award in 1994 and the UK Sport Award 10 years later, and has been a welcome presenter of trophies, including in 2006 when she took delight in presenting Welsh sporting hero Joe Calzaghe with his SJA Sportsman of the Year trophy (pictured).
She will join Lord Coe, Lord Glentoran — who won 1964 bobsleigh gold as Robin Dixon — and Lord Higgins (the former Olympic sprinter Terry Higgins), as well as UK Sport’s Baronness Campbell among a slowly growing sports lobby in Parliament ahead of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.
Grey-Thompson already holds significant positions with LOCOG and UK Athletics, as well as Transport for London and as an ambassador for Unicef. In the Lords, she will not be affiliated to any of the main parties, working as a crossbencher on disability and sporting issues.
Grey-Thompson competed at five Paralympic Games, winning 11 gold medals. She received the DBE in 2005 for services to sport.
Lord Coe was among those who expressed his delight at the elevation to the House of Lords.
Congratulations on behalf of the SJA were sent by its Chairman, Barry Newcombe. “Dame Tanni has been an enthusiastic and helpful guest at our events,” he said. “We look forward to welcoming her again soon, as a Baroness.”
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