Portsmouth pair Jade and Maddie set to make GB Paralympic debuts
Portsmouth pair Jade Atkin and Maddie Martin are preparing to make their Paralympic debuts.
The wheelchair basketball duo both won a silver medal in last year’s European Championships in Rotterdam representing Great Britain.
Now they have been handed another international call on the biggest stage of all - the Paralympics in Paris.
They are two of five wheelchair basketball players across both men’s and women’s teams set to appear in the competition for the first time.
Atkin, 22, and Martin, 20, are two of 11 members of the women’s squad, including 2018 World Championship silver medallists Robyn Love, Sophie Carrigill, Charlotte Moore, Laurie Williams, Joy Haizelden, Amy Conroy and Helen Freeman.
Freeman’s selection for Paris makes this her fifth Games, having debuted at Beijing in 2008.
Martin competes at club level for Loughborough Lightning and Reading Rockets while Atkin is a member of the Cardiff Met Archers.
Atkin began playing wheelchair basketball for fun with her sister Adele before being diagnosed with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia.
In 2018, she was part of the winning team at the Under-24 European Championships and the following year helped a
Great Britain squad win bronze at the Under-25 World Championships.
Atkin later represented England when wheelchair basketball made its Commonwealth Games debut in 2022, helping her country win bronze.
It was one of eight sports in the Games with parasport competitions the others being athletics, swimming, cycling, bowls, powerlifting, table tennis and triathlon.
Martin, a former pupil at Castle View Academy in Paulsgrove, took up wheelchair basketball after being inspired by the London 2012 Paralympics.
Born with the neurological condition spina bifida, she was also part of the winning GB team - alongside Atkin - at the Under-24 European Championships in France in 2018, despite being only 14 years old at the time.
Back in 2018, The News reported that Maddie had a great future in the sport.
After returning from a three-day GB Futures camp in Sheffield when she was just 13, coach Dan Price tipped Martin for the Paris Paralympics.
Maddie’s dad, Rob, said at the time: ‘We are so proud of her. She only started playing wheelchair basketball about three years ago.
‘When she watched wheelchair basketball in the (London) Paralympics she said “that’s what I want to do and want to be” and it’s been her dream ever since.
‘When she was at a GB Futures camp last year, they had an end-of-camp review. Dan’s parting comment was he can see her developing into the world’s best women’s wheelchair basketball player in the future.
‘After going up to Sheffield again, they saw a massive transformation in Maddie’s ability.
‘She took on board everything they had told her previously.
‘While I was there Dan pulled me to one side and said if Maddie was two weeks older she’d be in the 2020 Paralympic squad, and she’s the top priority for 2024.”
Wheelchair basketball will take place on all 11 days of competition in the Bercy Arena.
A total of around 220 athletes from 19 sports are expected to make up the British team that will compete in Paris.
At Tokyo 2020 Paralympicsgb won medals across a record-breaking 18 different sports - the highest number of any nation ever.
Paralympicsgb finished second on the medal table with 124, including 41 gold, 38 silver and 45 bronze.
When Maddie watched wheelchair basketball in the (London) Paralympics she said “that’s what I want to do and want to be”