Matthew Redfern will make his Paralympic Games debut this summer as ParalympicsGB confirm his addition the para-swimming team for Paris 2024.
With less than 50 days to go, Matthew Redfern joins the now 27-strong para-swimming team headed to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games this summer.
Having come out of competitive retirement in 2022 to embark on the project of supporting Great Britain’s visually impaired relay ambitions, the world championship bronze medallist found a renewed focus to improve his own individual best times and now visualises the realisation of his Paralympic dream.
“I think that was one of the first things I did after I got the call I was able to just close my eyes and imagine the buzz of the atmosphere, the cheer of the crowds, my family being up in the stands and even just talking about it now is giving me goose bumps a little bit.” he said,
“I think the main feeling for me is one of excitement, I'm really excited to get there. Pre-retirement I never really fulfilled the potential I had. I always turned up to training and trained hard, but I never had a goal to go for. So I think the pre-retirement phase [of my career] was very much ‘it just happened’. But then I came back out, spoke to the coaches and I was really able to dig deeper than I'd ever dug before.
“Now I’m heading to Paris, which is both the relay - and I fully believe that is a medal opportunity - and also the honour of an individual, which is just fantastic.”
Matthew joins up with double Paralympic silver medallist, Rebecca Redfern, to form the second pair of siblings on the team. Being able to share the Games with his younger sister is one of immense pride, and leaves the Redfern family with a spare ticket on offer to watch from the stands.
“The reaction that she gave me when I went to her house and told her that was on the team, it was it was really beautiful, a beautiful thing. Up until about three weeks ago, before the call came in I was also planning to come out and watch - it is one of those things where there's plenty of willing volunteers, the tickets have already been bought so it's just a case of finding someone!”
With the countdown towards the Games heading into its final weeks, Redfern is continuing preparations with a large proportion of the team in Turkey on a warm weather camp opportunity, while the full Paralympic team will come together at the Aquatics GB summer Championships across Tuesday 23rd to Friday 26th July at Ponds Forge, Sheffield to compete in the para-swimming programme of events as a chance to practice racing processes ahead of beginning taper for Paris 2024.
The para-swimming competition programme runs across ten days (29th August‑7th September) at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Further details on the athletes selected to represent Great Britain can be found here.