Sophie Pascoe

Sophie Pascoe was born in Christchurch on January the 8th 1993 to Gary and Joe Pascoe. Sophie grew up on a lifestyle block near Halswell on the south-western outskirts of the city. She has one older sister, Rebecca. On the 23rd September 1995, Sophie was accidentally run over by her father on the family lawnmower, resulting in both of her legs being caught under the cutter deck housing in the path of the rotating mower blades. As a result of the accident, her left leg was to be amputated below the knee, while the rear of her right leg was left with severe scarring. She attended Haslwell Primary School, and Lincoln High School in the nearby Christchurch satellite town of Lincoln. Sophie began swimming at the age of 7. She is coached by Roly Critchon, and trains AT THE QE11 Swim Club, which has been based at Jelly Park in Burnside since the facilities at Queen Elizabeth 11 park was damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. 

At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, Sophie won a gold and a silver 100 meters breaststroke and 100 meters Butterfly, respectively and later a gold for the woman's 200 meters individual medley. Sophie then shared a gold medal for the 100 meters backstroke when she drew with South African Shireen Sapiro. At 15 years of age, Sophie was New Zealand's youngest athlete at the Paralympics, and youngest New Zealander to win a medal. Following the 2008 Paralympics, Sophie was voted New Zealand's favourite Paralympian in a nationwide voting competition run by Mitsubishi Motors. For this she won a Mitsubishi VRX Outlander.

Sophie's accident happened when she was 2 years old, when her father accidentally reversed into Sophie on a ride on mower. Sophie pictured herself in a white dress, when it happened. When the accident happened the next door neighbors drove her and her dad  to the hospital, but in her dad's hands was her leg dangling from her knee. But look at her now and how good she is at swimming.

The reason why I look up to Sophie Pascoe is because she never gives up and carried on not thinking that she has a fake leg up to her knee, and how she still tries everything that she can do.

So the reason why I look up to Sophie Pascoe is that she never gives up and carries on with her life and never worries on how she looks or does things, and she stills swims like she is normal, with to legs. So that is why I look up to Sophie Pascoe.