Stef Reid Biography (PDF)

STAGE 6 Unit focus: Biographies Text focus: Information Text STEF REID When Stef Reid was born in 1984, it was to a Sco sh father and an English mother. Even though she was born in New Zealand, her family moved to Canada when she was only four. By the time she began competing in athletics events, sh...

STAGE 6 Unit focus: Biographies Text focus: Information Text STEF REID When Stef Reid was born in 1984, it was to a Sco sh father and an English mother. Even though she was born in New Zealand, her family moved to Canada when she was only four. By the time she began competing in athletics events, she was eligible to compete for any of three countries! Sports always featured heavily in Stef’s life. She was an avid rugby player and, by age 12, had set her sights on competing with the best. Unfortunately, that all changed when she was 15 years old. Visiting a friend at a lakeside co age in Canada, Stef went out onto the lake to take part in some watersports. One of the things she did was ride on an inflatable ring whilst being pulled by a boat. It is common for people to come off the ring during these fun activities, but this time nobody noticed where she had fallen in. As the boat came back looking for her, the driver failed to spot her. She dived below the surface to dodge the boat, but the propeller caught her, slicing into her leg, glutes and back. It almost cut her in half, she is quoted as saying. She made it to the hospital, where a surgeon saved her life, but he had to amputate her right leg below the knee. Not only was she lucky to be alive, but she had avoided any spinal injuries. Following her recovery, Stef wanted to get back into sport, but she was told that rugby wasn’t an option because the referees were worried that her prosthetic leg might injure other players. Instead, she turned her a ention to her education. She a ended Queen’s University in Canada, where she studied biochemistry. Whilst there, she decided to join the university’s athletics team to see how fast she could still run with her artificial limb. It turned out that she was pre y fast! Once she graduated, she put her career on hold and decided to pursue her childhood goal of being a professional sports star. Stef won her first Paralympic medal at the Beijing Games in 2008, where she competed for Canada. She claimed bronze in the 200-metre sprint. Athletes in the Paralympics are grouped by different classifications, which are given a le er and number. These ensure that people with similar disabilities are competing against each other. Stef competed in the T44 category, which is described all resources ©2023 Literacy Shed http://www.literacyshedplus.com as for people with a “single, below knee amputation or an athlete who can walk with moderately reduced function in one or both legs”. By the time the Paralympics came to London in 2012, Stef had switched allegiance to Great Britain as both of her parents are British. There, she won a silver medal in the T44 long jump event. This was followed by another silver medal in the same event at the 2016 Rio games and a gold at the 2017 World Championships. Outside of her athletics, Reid became one of the first disabled models in a Debenhams advertising campaign, became the first amputee to model and walk on the London Fashion Week catwalk, worked hard for charities and competed in 2022’s Dancing on Ice TV show. RETRIEVAL FOCUS 1. Which sport did Stef love to play as a child? 2. In which country did she have her accident? 3. Where did Stef go to university? 4. In which category does she compete? 5. In which sport did she win her first Paralympic medal? S I S V V VIPERS QUESTIONS Why was Reid able to chose from three different countries to compete for? What information in the text gives you the impression that Stef is tough and perseveres? How do Paralympic categories help to keep events fair? Place these three words in order of severity: moderately severely mildly What does “prosthetic” mean? all resources ©2023 Literacy Shed http://www.literacyshedplus.com