Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson made peer in House of Lords

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, the winner of 11 Paralympic gold medals as a wheelchair racer, has been made a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords.

Four new non-party-political peers recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission were announced today.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, as the leading Paralympic sportsperson in the history of the Great Britain team, will put her considerable skills and intellect to the areas of sport, disability and youth.

“I feel incredibly honoured to have been considered for this, and to have been accepted into the House of Lords. I went through great nerves as an athlete, but I’ve had sleepless nights about my first speech there,” Grey-Thompson told The Daily Telegraph.

Grey-Thompson, as Grey before she married Dr Ian Thompson, began her international career in 1988 in Seoul, where she won a bronze medal in the 400m.

Yet by her last Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004, she had amassed 16 medals (11 gold, four silver and a bronze) and 13 World Championship medals (six gold, five silver and two bronze).

In Barcelona in 1992, and in Sydney in 2000, she won four gold medals at each Games. Grey-Thompson is also a non-executive director for UK Athletics, sits on the board of the London Marathon and the Board of Transport for London (2008).

She is Chair of the Womens Sports and Fitness Foundation Commission on the Future of Womens Sport.

Her work extends further, as patron of numerous charities including Sportsleaders UK. She is vice-chairman of the Laureus World Sport Academy, and a trustee of the Sport for Good Foundation. She is also a Council Member for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and a UNICEF International Inspiration Ambassador.

In 1993 she received an MBE for services to sport, in 2000 the OBE for services to sport and in 2005 was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Sporting honours - apart from the 11 gold medals at the Paralympics and over twenty world records - include being named the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year, and in 2000, she came third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, behind Steve Redgrave and Denise Lewis.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, who has been a columnist for The Daily Telegraph sports section for over 10 years, said it would be “a day I will remember forever. But the hard work starts now - as I would really like to make a difference.”

Peter Norfolk wins fourth quad singles title in Melbourne

While Andrew Murray was stealing the headlines in a pulsating, emotional match at Melbourne Park, in a far-flung corner of the tennis complex, Peter Norfolk, Britain's world No 1 quadriplegic wheelchair tennis player, known as ‘The Quadfather’, clinched his third successive Australian Open quad singles title, and his fourth Down Under since 2004.

It was business as usual for the two-time Paralympic champion, who produced another polished performance against long-time rival, American world No 2 David Wagner 6-2, 7-6 (4).

Norfolk not only retained his world No 1 ranking, the victory took his tally of wheelchair tennis majors to 17, while he has now won 41 career singles titles since 2001. The double Paralympic gold medallist opened the final with a love service game and went on to take a 4-1 lead after Wagner converted his one and only break point of the first set to take the second game.

Norfolk took the American to deuce in three of Wagner's four service games and the Hampshire player converted his first set point for his third break of the opening set.

When Wagner took a 5-3 lead in the second set, the prospect of losing a second set to Wagner for the second time in three days brought the Brit ability to perform under pressure to the fore. He upped his game and forced a tie-break, winning his fourth title in Australia after an hour and 36 minutes of play.

Lizzie Simpkin leads the Telegraph Ten's charge to London 2012

She may be the youngest of our Telegraph Ten for 2012 but Lizzie Simpkin is the first to be able to claim that she is a senior world champion and world record holder.

A year after we began our voyage of discovery with 10 of the country's brightest medal prospects for the London Olympics and Paralympics, 15-year-old Simpkin ended 2009 on a glorious note at the International Paralympic Committee World Short-Course Swimming Championships in Rio de Janeiro last month.

Swimming the third butterfly leg in the women's 4x100m medley relay, the Southport girl produced one of the performances of her life to give Britain a huge lead before handing over to double Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds, who wrapped up Britain's victory in a world record time of 4min 56.23sec.

"It was the very last race of the whole competition and I was really pleased with how I swam,"avfc1982 Simpkin said. "I knew Ellie would do it if I could get her into a good position. In the call room before the race we were feeling very confident and it was obvious we had more mental strength than the other teams."

The rules of the medley mean that the combined disability classifications of the competing teams could not exceed 34 points. A lower classification number denotes a greater degree of disability, and the British quartet found themselves at a disadvantage because a late withdrawal meant their classification total was 32 points.

Simpkin, a single-arm amputee who competes in the S9 category, said: "My main rival in the butterfly, a Russian girl who is also an S9, had already beaten me in my individual race.

"I set off about 0.4 of a second in front of her but I knew that I had Ellie after me and she is a S6 and she was going to be up against an S8, giving Russia a clear advantage.

"I knew that I had to get ahead for Ellie to have any chance of staying in front. I could see throughout the race that I was ahead and by the end of the leg there was about four metres between us, which I was really happy with."

The venue in Rio was appropriate since Simpkin's sights are set on the 2016 Games as well as London, though her focus this year will be on pounding out the hard miles in her Southport pool.

The World Long-Course Championships in Eindhoven and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi will be the main milestones this year, though the teenager is more concerned about sorting out her training regime as she juggles sixth-form college with the extra hours she aims to spend on improving her strength and technique.

"It's strange but last year the London Olympics felt really close, but now it doesn't feel that they are coming so soon," she said. "I just need to forget all the hype about it and settle down to my work."

She is not the only one. All of our 10 athletes will be looking to use the coming year to build on their successes at junior level and establish themselves as seniors capable of challenging for medals in London. With the clock ticking, now is the time to step up.

Gymnast Daniel Keatings, 19, one of our star performers in 2009, can claim to have already made the transition after his brilliant all-around silver medal at the World Championships in September.

Fifteen-year-old Megan Sylvester also announced her arrival on the senior stage with a sixth-place finish at the World Diving Championships, while taekwondo fighter Aaron Cook atoned for a disappointing year by his high standards by knocking out the multiple Olympic and world champion, Steven Lopez, in November.

Triathlete Hollie Avil, who added the world under-23 title to her junior crown last summer, will be looking to establish herself in the senior World Championship series while track athletes Perri Shakes-Drayton and Stephanie Twell can establish their medal credentials at this summer's European Championships in Barcelona.

Track cyclist David Daniell will be aiming for silverware at the World Championships in Copenhagen in March while wheelchair tennis player Gordon Reid and table tennis player Paul Drinkhall are hoping to use the forthcoming year to ascend the senior men's rankings.

One year into their journey as the Telegraph 10, all of our athletes remain on course for London, but how they fare in 2010 could determine whether they really have the potential to make it to the podium.

The final lap may be some way off, but now is not the time to drop off the pace.

Critics demand concrete legacy for Paralympic sport

The legacy from the Paralympic Games should be one of "education and awareness" according to Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, the nation's most decorated Paralympic athlete.

However, leading academic researchers, and influential figures within the disability sport movement, remain highly critical of the lack of a concrete policy for clear social change.

Telegraph Sport can reveal that research commissioned by London 2012 found that, on average, 69 per cent of those surveyed could not name a Paralympian, whereas 94 per cent of the UK public have heard of the Paralympic Games. Britain have finished second in the medals table at the past two Games, and in the top four at the past five Games.

However, the 2012 research also indicates that 69 per cent of the public would like to see more media coverage of Paralympic events.

Grey-Thompson believes the public's lack of understanding may be holding back not just the sport, but the disability aspects of the Games.

The Paralympics are a sporting – and political – movement for those living with disabilities. Grey-Thompson said: "Awareness and education, and a move towards social change and widespread acceptance have to be the key aims, along with developing a sporting structure for the future. But one size does not fit all in Paralympic terms as we are looking at several disability groups, and a postcode lottery in the UK when it comes to development."

The former Paralympic wheelchair sprinter, winner of 11 gold medals, has found herself ensconced in committees and working parties with Government and Games organisers for more than two years, along with Phil Lane, chief executive of ParalympicsGB, and Mike Brace, former president of the British Paralympic Association.

Brace believes the key legacy point in sports development must be a national pathway ladder from playground to podium.

However, Professor Mike Weed, and Suzanne Dowse from the Centre for Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research, remain highly critical – aside from an aspirant elite sports legacy – of concrete plans for a social legacy.

In 2004, the 'London 2012 Candidate File' handed to International Olympic Committee delegates suggested that the Paralympic Games in London would "build respect for disabled people by changing society's perceptions" in its bidding process.

Yet Weed cites "general rhetoric" and "illusory" legacy plans for the Paralympic Games of London, saying there is a need for a seismic change both politically and in the way disability sport is covered in the mainstream media.

Lane said: "There is a need for legacy planners to overtly consider potential Paralympic legacies in their own right and a need to extend Paralympic legacy thinking beyond sport development.

"Because of the nature of Paralympic sport, and disability sport, the legacy we are looking at is both sporting and social. On the sporting front, access has improved and sports are being taken up and aligned by national governing bodies."

Yet it is at grass-roots level where the most problematic issues of legacy creation lie. Most children with disabilities are now in mainstream schools, as opposed to 'special schools', which can preclude them from mainstream sport.

"What we need is lateral thinking within phys ed for kids with disabilities. You often just have to come up with a different model," Lane said. "It's a real challenge."

One suggestion is a number of specialist sports colleges being nominated across the country to each create a sporting unit for talented young athletes with disabilities.

"We are looking to change people's minds and attitudes to disability sport through the Games," Lane said.

Paralympics will provide inspirational finale for the Games

The BT Paralympic World Cup, which has just finished in Manchester was a thrilling event and brought all the memories of the Beijing Paralympic Games flooding back.

Back then, Britain's Paralympians finished an astonishing second in the medal table behind China. In Manchester we were reminded of the athletes that excel and inspire.

Like Jody Cundy, a world-class swimmer and now double Paralympic cycling gold medallist, who set a new world record in the Flying 200 metres on the track and Ellie Simmonds, the youngest ever recipient of an MBE after winning two gold medals in Beijing at the age of 13, who picked up her goggles just where she took them off last year.

For Ellie there was another gold medal to go alongside the MBE and a new world record in the 100m freestyle. And there was another world record for David Roberts in the 400m freestyle.

The standards just keep on getting higher. And like the athletes we, at London 2012, are rising to the challenge. For us the Paralympic Games have always been integral to our plans, from bid phase through to Beijing and beyond. And I'm thrilled that more than 60 years after they first began, the Paralympic Games are finally coming home.

It was in 1948 that Sir Ludwig Guttman, a leading neurologist, first organised a sports competition for World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire to coincide with the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Four years later, in 1952, Dutch competitors joined and it became an international movement. In 1960, in Rome, Olympic style games for athletes with a disability were first arranged. Then, 400 athletes from 23 countries took part.

In London we're expecting 4,200 competitors, the largest athlete participation ever.

My experiences in Beijing, and since, have made me feel privileged to be part of a team that's responsible for delivering the Paralympic Games. It's the same team that will deliver the Olympic Games and, although the two Games will each have their own unique feel, as far as I'm concerned, there will be no difference in terms of planning and delivery.

We've got 20 Paralympic venues, the majority of which are located in the Olympic Park where the Olympic Stadium, Velodrome and Aquatics Centre are. Most of the remaining 10 will be held in the River Zone, which includes Greenwich Park, the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, and ExCeL.

These zones are just 15 minutes apart. Events held outside these zones include Paralympic rowing, which is taking place at the world-class facility, Eton Dorney, sailing at Weymouth and Portland and road cycling, which will be held in central London.

We're committed to making our venues fully accessible and to ensure that our venues are full. We must educate our spectators to make sure they appreciate the commitment, dexterity and tenacity of our Paralympians.

We're also working hard to find ways of keeping the festival spirit of the Olympic Games alive until, and beyond, the moment the Paralympians arrive in town to ensure that London and the UK's celebrations continue throughout the Paralympics.

If we don't excite, inspire and thrill those that come to watch the Paralympic Games, as well as widen their understanding and appreciation of what's unfolding before them, and encourage generations to follow, then we will have failed both ourselves and the athletes.

That's not something I intend to let happen.

Eleanor Simmonds sets new world record at Paralympic World Cup

Eleanor Simmonds, the 14-year-old double Paralympic swimming champion, set the only world record on the final day of BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

Simmonds shaved 1.23 seconds off the women's S6 100m freestyle world record, previously held by Doramitzi Gonzalez of Mexico, and more than two seconds off her personal best for the event.

Simmonds has slipped into the groove of breaking records: youngest British athlete to win an individual gold medal, aged 13; youngest to receive an MBE, aged 14.

The Swansea swimmer also handled a media throng with aplomb yesterday at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

"I was shocked," she said. "It was a good swim but I was really surprised about the time. I didn't think I could get a world record at all.

"It was good getting two seconds off my personal best and also winning it. Breaking the world record in an event that's my second event is really good."

"I needed to improve my dives and turns and stuff like that, but we've still got a lot more to improve. Every time I go in there I just try to do my best. With me, it helps me I like to, not really show off, but do something special."

Elsewhere, Heather Frederiksen went out fast to threaten her own world record of 1min 14.36sec in the women's MD 100m backstroke but finished 0.6sec outside the time she set in Beijing.

The multiple Paralympic gold medallist Jessica Long, of the United States was second. Tim Reddish, performance director of the British team, said: "It's always a difficult year the one directly after a Paralympic Games, but the entire British squad is working in the right direction."

The distinct British rivalry between Dave Roberts, winner of 11 Paralympic gold medals, and Matt Walker continued as the Paralympic medal holders refused to shake hands after the men's S7 50m freestyle race. Roberts finished in 28.56sec, Walker in 28.72.

"It is the kind of rivalry which creates champions," said a member of the British team. "We are a team when we compete, but we are also individuals, and these are the kind of rivalries which create record breakers and push the bar higher."

Oscar Pistorius short of World Championship qualifying time

In a mirror image of the Beijing Paralympic Games, Oscar Pistorius pipped American Jerome Singleton on the line in the 100m of the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

But the 22-year-old South African, labelled the Blade Runner because of the prosthetic limbs on which he runs, was less enamoured with his performance in his favoured 400m, the distance at which he is attempting to qualify for the able-bodied World Championships in Berlin in August.

Pistorius, the triple gold Paralympic runner won the 400m in perfect conditions, yet he was almost six seconds outside the time he requires to qualify for Berlin.

Pistorius said that 50.28 sec was “the worst time I’ve run in three and a half years.”

He added: “I look at that time and think ‘can I make qualifying?’ Let’s be honest it was shocking. I know I wasn’t running hard and I know I can run better.

“I have got a lot of hard work to do. I have no doubt that I am going to run a personal best this year. I’m sure I’ll come close if I don’t do it. It is a hard goal, but that’s what we’re in the sport for, to run as hard as we can and to push ourselves.”

The South African Athletics Federation have set Pistorius’ a qualifying time of 45.4 sec to make the team for Berlin, and on yesterday’s showing, it looks a long way off.

But Pistorius has been in training for just eight weeks after recovering from a the serious injuries he sustained in a life-threatening speedboat accident.

The incident left him in a coma for three days and he required 180 stitches in his face. He also had his jaw rebuilt and a fractured eye-socket repaired.

Pistorius will now race at two able-bodied meets, in Barcelona on Friday, and then in Milan 10 days later, and unless he reaches the qualifying time, he will miss out on Berlin, and will have to settle for a tilt at the 2011 IAAF world championships in South Korea.

For young rising British athlete Ian Jones, the race was a personal triumph. Jones, a Mancunian, finished second to the South African in a personal best of 51.33 sec.

It was a day of familiar faces and familiar races at the Sport City Athletics Stadium on the penultimate day of the BT Paralympic World Cup.

Britain’s powerfully-built leading wheelchair athlete David Weir finished in second place in the T54 800m to Marcel Hug of Switzerland, and then returned to reverse the positions in the T54 1500m, the reigning Paralympic champion over the distance dominating the race and leading Hug for the entire last lap.

Elsewhere, Briton Ben Rushgrove sprinted to a championship record in 12.47 sec in the mens’ T36 100m, beating Mian Che of China, the world record holder.

Wounded veteran Kortney Clemons takes on Oscar Pistorius at the Paralympic World Cup

Oscar Pistorius, the triple Paralympic gold medallist, will be the main draw in the athletics portion of the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, at the Sport City Regional Arena, but lining up alongside the young South African in the 100m sprint will be the remarkable USA athlete Kortney Clemons.

Clemons was the first Iraq war veteran to qualify for the US Paralympic team and compete at the Beijing Games after losing a leg in roadside bomb when helping a colleague in 2005. Clemons insists he is "living proof that you can accomplish anything".

On Feb. 21, 2005, Clemons, then 24, a combat medic in the 1st Cavalry Division, went to the aid of a soldier whose Humvee had been blown off a dirt road outside Baghdad by an insurgent's bomb.

He was readying the wounded soldier for a helicopter evacuation when a second bomb nearby killed three fellow medics and blew away Clemons' right leg from above the knee. It was five days before he was due to be discharged from the army.

Six months later Clemons began running with a prosthetic limb, insisting he went through a period of "re-introducing myself to myself". Who knows the dark places a man must go to replace the physical loss, literally, and seemingly, the end of his active lifestyle?

Yet Clemons insists he searched his soul for the reasons that God would want to take his leg, and found solace in sprinting.

"I came to the realisation that he did this for a reason. He wanted me to make something more of myself. I had to lose my leg to find the real me."

A few months after that uplifting first run he claimed the US national Paralympic title in the 100m sprint. He failed to win a medal in Beijing, but the single amputee continues to improve.

The native of Little Rock, Mississippi, has always loved sports. Before joining the army, he played junior college football and in spite of being 5ft10 and 145lbs, was a formidable defensive back. He has shown the same inspiration as a Paralympian.

Also on the track is one of Great Britain's greatest Paralympians, Danny Crates, the Paralympic record holder at 800m is back in action after injury, and contemplating retirement, while one of Britain's rising track and field stars, Nathan Stephens, the world junior champion at shot, discus and javelin, also competes.

Stephens has already been a summer and winter Paralympian for GB despite having his legs amputated when he was run over by a train on his 9th birthday.

Jason Queally and Anthony Kappes set Kilo record at Paralympic World Cup

Former Olympic gold medallist Jason Queally and double Paralympic champion Anthony Kappes set a new British Kilo record at the Manchester Velodrome.

The new tandem pairing of sighted pilot rider and partially-sighted tandem partner enjoying their first outing together at the Manchester Velodrome on Friday, clocking the fastest time ever over the Kilo distance by a British pairing on a tandem, able-bodied or disabled, in 1 min 1.626 secs[one minute, one point six two six seconds].

From now until London 2012, it will be a partnership worth monitoring. Records are on their minds. Big time.

It was classed as an exhibition event at the BT Paralympic World Cup, as Queally must complete a three-calendar year cycle away from able-bodied competition. In the meantime, they will seek to break the all-time world record for the Kilo.

Kappes explained: “I’m searching for the absolute fastest time ever for the tandem, but it is taking some research as it was set way back when. Partnership is going well, we are experimenting at the moment, but today has given us a look at the bigger picture.”

Great Britain claimed for more gold medals to bring the number to ten wins over the three days of competition. Sarah Storey bagged the first of the session, winning the three kilometre pursuit, followed by Aileen McGlynn and Vicky Begg in the B&Vi 3km pursuit, the men's team sprint and the men's B&Vi sprint.

Jody Cundy, who converted to cycling after being a Paralympic swimming champion, set a new world record of 10.998 seconds in the LC2 200m flying start, previously held by Germany's Mario Hammar, an LC1 rider, in 11.410 secs.

Cundy’s precision and power with a prosthetic lower limb aerodynamically designed by Chris Boardman can now claim to be the fastest solo paracyclist in history.

Cundy then returned to the track to win the team sprint in 50.218 secs alongside Darren Kenny and Mark Bristow. "The new world record finished it off really. I’d set myself the goal of breaking 11 seconds, which is a pretty good time.”

Great Britain's wheelchair basketball teams have yet to win a match here but insist that the BT Paralympic World Cup this year is being used as a tryout event with new squads. GB’s men lost 48-35 to Paralympic champions Australia in the semi-final, but know they have pedigree in the squad. GB has won bronze medals in the sport at the last two Paralympic Games.

The GB women’s team, with a group of neophyte senior players under 19, lost all four preliminary matches, will meet China in the play-off for third and fourth following a 54-35 last four defeat to Holland, the Paralympic World Cup defending champions.

South African ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius, and British wheelchair racer David Weir are both in action on Sunday at the SportCity Athletics Stadium.