Three years ago, Ben Pritchard left Tokyo despondent.

The only para rower from GB’s squad who didn’t come back with a medal was “an incredibly lonely place to be.” A fact he was reminded of immediately.

“They were invited to Buckingham Palace, they were invited to the lounge, all these celebratory things that happen after getting a medal,” says Pritchard.

“Rightly so, my teammates deserved it, but when you’re the only one in the team that doesn’t get a medal, it’s a fairly lonely place to be.”

His options, either throw in the towel or push on, finding a solution to his difficulties from Tokyo.

Pritchard chose the latter, having some “hard conversations” with his coaching team before committing to another three years living away from his beloved Mumbles.

“I got the Paralympic record in the repechage at Tokyo, which was an incredible feat,” says Pritchard who races in the PR1 category.

“In the final, I was surpassed by people that shouldn’t have really beaten me. Maybe I underperformed, maybe the stage got to me, but I don’t really think that was the case.

“Great Britain hadn’t meddled in the PR1 category on the international stage at the World Championships since Rio 2016, whereas the other boats have consistently been medallists, the GB four are unbeaten in 14 years, so what are we doing wrong?

“We embarked on a new seating plan, made a lot of sacrifices and now, having been selected for the games make it worth it and I feel in a much better place, a more quietly confident place than I was in Tokyo.”

From Cycling to Para-Rowing

Pritchard admits that “Tokyo was a whirlwind”, selected on the back of the World Championships in 2019, only three years after the crash which changed his life.

An avid cyclist and triathlete, Pritchard suffered a T6 complete spinal paraplegia which means he cannot move from the sternum down.

While recovering at Stoke Mandeville hospital, Pritchard began rowing on the indoor machines under instruction for his rehabilitation and admits he took a while to fall in love with the sport.

“When I started rowing, I was in hospital and I found staring at those numbers, pulling the chain back and forth really boring,” says Pritchard.

“It wasn’t until my friend told me that there’s a leaderboard behind the physio door that sparked my competitive nature.

“I didn’t leave top of the leaderboard at the end, I was beaten by people who can walk, but it frustrates me even to this day.

“I’ve gone on to do some amazing things, but they still beat me on that hospital gym leaderboard.”

The wheelchair is my greatest friend

So why rowing? There are other options such as the hand cycle which would enable Pritchard to compete on wheels again.

“It was too close to home, it was cycling without being cycling,” says Pritchard.

“It took me four years to buy one and I’ve bought one now and I love it. I still swim weekly, that triathlete element is still there but in terms of other sports I tried basketball, tennis, boccia, but in all those sports I was still in a wheelchair.

“The reason rowing perhaps stayed was at the time in 2016, 2017 when I first tried rowing, I wasn’t okay with being in a wheelchair. I know that sounds horrible as people are born without a choice, but I’d had a life where I wasn’t in a wheelchair.

“The wheelchair gave me so much and is my greatest friend and biggest mobility aid, without it I wouldn’t be able to live my life but it’s a very stark reminder of my disability and what I’ve lost.

“So, when I first started rowing, it was nice to see it disappear because you literally row away from it. That was the drug that committed me to rowing which was the freedom for an hour a day to be free of this disability.”

Now Pritchard feels much “more comfortable” with his disability than he was in 2017 but there are still stark reminders of what he’s “lost”.

“I had a daughter last year – Efa – and there are ‘first’ things that are happening for the rest of her life,” says Pritchard.

“First time I’ve done something in a wheelchair with her and I won’t be able to do a father-daughter dance standing up at her wedding, these are stark reminders of what I’ve lost.

“When you get that sad thought in your mind you acknowledge it and don’t let it get any deeper and I’ve done a load of work with the psychologist at British rowing on that.

“What I used to love about cycling was the noise of the tyres on the tarmac, the clicking of the chain ticking over, the sound of the birds in the lanes, those are some of my happiest times.

“With rowing, I get that with the blades going into the water or coming out of the gates.”

‘quietly confident’ going into Paris

Now, the sport is one Pritchard “adores”, with this year being the one he’s enjoyed the most in the boat, in no small part down to a new project.

“The seating project has piqued my interest, it’s made me buy into the sport as I previously used to say I was a cyclist who rowed,” says Pritchard, 32.

“When you are first selected, you take it in your stride and think whatever happens will happen, whereas now I’m making a choice to make it a career.

“To build the seat, we’ve used two teams, one that used to be David Coulthard’s test mechanic at McLaren, that make formula-e seats and motorsports seats, along with Tim Dean who works in sailing and the America’s Cup.

“Now we have a perfect synergy between the three of us where we’ve nailed it. With my coach and physio, we’ve worked in the gym and increased my range of motion through certain joints or increased function which given my spinal injury is pretty impressive.

“Ultimately all of that led to a gold medal, my first, at the World Cup in Poznan and I’m quietly confident going into Paris without trying to let complacency sneak in.”

Embracing disability and feeling ‘safe’

With the boat now three and a half kilos lighter than in Tokyo, Pritchard is able to go faster than ever before in a category where the record time has dropped 23 seconds in this Paralympic cycle.

“I’m going fast, I just broke the world record on the indoor machine, I’ve got a gold medal, it feels good to say it and I’m doing it with a smile on my face,” says Pritchard.

“I’m enjoying the special moments in the build-up to the games like the team announcement in Trafalgar Square. The photos from that look epic along with kitting out day. We didn’t get these pre-Tokyo because of the global pandemic so I think enjoyment is the main feeling.

“My biggest take home from Tokyo and the Paralympic Games was that it’s the one place in the world where you’ll feel safe, not different, for two weeks.

“What I mean by that is day-to-day, when me and my wife Meg enter a room, people will stop and stare, or think that Meg is my carer, or if my daughter is on my lap and I’m wheeling around a shop, people will stop and stare because it’s cool.

“It’s not malicious, but when you’re at the Paralympics everyone’s disabled, and it’s all set up to be accessible.

“A big part of my life is worrying about the perception people have of me in the chair and I don’t want people to think that I’m disabled or can’t do something because I’m in a wheelchair.”

Medals on the mind

With Paris just around the corner, Pritchard can look back on Tokyo and admits to being “overwhelmed” at the thought of being able to call himself a Paralympian.

For Paris, he has one singular goal in mind.

“I want to call myself a medal winning athlete,” says Pritchard.

“I’m quietly confident that I can. It’s come from that difficult place three years ago and having to really plan it out and go through some hard times and struggles.

“I want to know that when I cross that line, we’ve given it everything we possibly can.

“There are probably five of us who are in contention for the medals and whoever gets on that podium will have raced their race to do it.”

Image Credit: Benedict Tufnell

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