Tokyo Paralympics: Wheelchair basketball's Robyn Love on LGBTQ progress & medal hopes
- Published
Q&A with ParalympicsGB's Robyn Love.
Paralympic Games on the BBC |
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Venue: Tokyo, Japan Dates: 24 August-5 September Time in Tokyo: BST +8 |
Coverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website |
As Robyn Love looks forward to the Paralympics in Tokyo, one thought in particular occupies her mind.
"What I look forward to in every situation is, what's for dinner? I'm thinking 'what does the canteen look like?'. Because if I thought about anything else I'd probably get overwhelmed by everything."
It would be easy for the 30-year-old Scot to be overwhelmed, given she had no idea about wheelchair basketball - or disability sport in general - before London 2012. Now, she is on the cusp of a second medal tilt at the Paralympics.
During that same period she saw few LGBTQ role models, and certainly none she could relate to. Now she is proudly herself. It's been some journey, and one which Love reflects on with humour and honesty.
She didn't let arthrogryposis, a condition which affects the lower limbs, stop her competing against able-bodied people whilst growing up in Ayr, a passion and determination which has served her well.
"When I was younger it was about saying 'I'm not disabled.' But what I was really saying was: 'you don't know what disabled is, it doesn't mean I can't do anything. In fact I'm better than you'."
While she loved the experience of competing against able-bodied children, Love feels strongly more kids need to be made aware of Para-sport sooner. Initially, she thought wheelchair basketball was only for those who use a chair permanently.
"I played sport all my life, I was really good at it, and did higher PE at school and loved it. I wanted to be a PE teacher, and I did not know about Para-sport until I was 22 and saw it on TV.
"How many people do we think that's happened to? We could have the next Hannah Cockcroft but she doesn't know about Para-sport.
"A lot of kids are still put in the library. It is improving, they've got the school games, which includes tennis, wheelchair basketball etc. But I do think schools need to do a better job of including all kids in sport."
'There aren't many queer disabled athletes who are out and proud'
Love is one of the record number of LGBTQ athletes set to compete at the Paralympics, with website Outsports projecting there will be at least double the number of 'out' athletes than in Rio.
The increase illustrates the shift in attitude in some sports, and Love believes the environment LGBTQ athletes are in can define how comfortable they feel being themselves.
Love and partner Laurie Williams, who also plays for the British wheelchair basketball side, announced their engagement on social media last year to a flurry of positive messages.
"Fortunately over the past few years more and more people are being out in the community, so [hockey players] Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh - we definitely took a lot of learning from them about being themselves," Love says. "Also from Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird - I'm a big football and running basketball fan.
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"But for a lot of people it's not that easy and I'm hoping one day it will be for everybody. But I'm just grateful I'm part of a team and programme where it is 100% ok to just be you, no matter what that is.
"It was pretty exciting when our engagement blew up. It was pretty cool. Because before that we'd been together for five years but we didn't necessarily share much information about ourselves.
"I think we just realised that it's a fun thing we get to share. There are a lot of female athletes in relationships on football teams, on opposite teams in different sports. [But] there aren't many queer disabled athletes who are out and proud.
"For me and Laurie, I think it was a great thing for our community to be LGBT and disabled and be accepted into the mainstream. It was pretty awesome."
'Most of us would never have dreamed of a medal'
Love and Williams live together, which meant they were able to keep each other on track in training throughout lockdown.
They were helped by a new labradoodle puppy, who arrived not long after the email telling them the Paralympics were postponed last year.
"Straight away I'm on the old tinterweb and fortunately we found Whiskey, just before dog prices went up exponentially," Love recalls. "She's been the light of our life and just bringing so much joy to what could've been - and was - a very difficult year."
Now though, the Games are here and Love's excitement is palpable. She thrives in competing alongside her team-mates and is determined to build on the fourth-place finish from Rio.
The British team has been on an upward curve since Love watched them finish seventh in London but started with a preliminary round defeat by Canada on Wednesday. Can they finally secure that elusive Paralympic medal?
"Having the Paralympic medal is something that this GB women's squad would never have dreamed of from where we've come from," Love says. "I would love to get that.
"I think it was Megan Rapinoe that said, when they won their bronze medal at the Olympics, 'it's not bronze, it's rose gold'. So to be honest I would be proud of any medal."
