Sabrina Fortune is a Paralympic gold medallist. Her world record breaking throw of 15.12 extended the record by 29cm from her own mark set in Birmingham in July.

Sportin Wales sat down with the three-time World Champion F20 shot putter ahead of the Paralympics to discuss scooters, animation, wasps, and a lot of throwing…

Tell me about the 2024 World Championships in Kobe. You broke the world record twice to win gold!

It was amazing. One of the best experiences I’ve ever had. The record wasn’t something that I was actually expecting on that day. I had thrown quite well before. So, I thought I might get a personal best because I hadn’t actually hit PB for two years before Kobe.

The day before I went out, I threw over 15 and a half metres in front of my competitors two days before my competition, so I may or may not have psyched them out a bit! I threw the first one and I realised that I can’t celebrate until the second one. I’ve still got to keep the same approach, I’ve got to be really calm, but really, I wanted to just jump up and down really excitedly but I though now I’ve got to be really calm and throw again.

Was there something different that you did that day?

Honestly, it was a pretty normal day. Maybe it was because of the scooter.

It’s quite far from the stadium to the warmup area and they went and got a scooter, and my first thought was ‘oh, this is going to cause chaos!’

It did because I crashed into like eight people, but it was really, really good because it was quite chilled and relaxed. I’m looking into trying to get an electric scooter for Paris, that would be really good so I can just properly ride along because the village massive. You can get bikes, but I want a proper scooter that I can just sit on.

What does preparation for Paris look like for the next few weeks?

A lot of work. After this weekend, it’s training seven days a week.

It’s just go, go, go. I’ve got one more competition in Swansea in August before I go to Paris. It’s all about getting things correct.

It’s not about how much I do, it’s more about getting it dead on. It’s a very long process.

I imagine it’s very mentally taxing. Talk to me about how you deal with that side of things.

You have to learn that things change quite quickly. Having a learning disability, I struggle with routines changing, and at the start of my career, I really struggled in competitions. In Rio, in our competition, we got stopped every five minutes so that other events could happen, and that was tough. You’re always going to have them downfalls. I had some in Tokyo, where I had that massive fall and its heartbreaking because that was the competition where I had the most things happen.

It really caught me off because what can you do for mental health when you’re in a competition and everything’s going wrong? Because you’re fighting a battle. You’re just not winning. I have started writing down I think that could go wrong and say, ‘It’s okay. It doesn’t matter if stuff goes wrong.’ As long as I can get my brain to work around it, it’ll be OK.

The first time I ever got a medal, my bronze in Rio, I actually dreamt that I got the medal the night before. Then I woke up and I thought ‘really? That’s so annoying.’

The next day felt like deja vu. I always find that if I’m going to get that medal, I always have a dream about it the night before. It’s a crazy, crazy thing.

You and Aled Sion Davies are two of the best shot putters in the world. How come Wales are so good at it?

It’s our coach, Ryan Spencer-Jones. He’s one of the best around, really good at what he does. He does all the programming and he’s always with us in competitions.

The worst thing for me is I’m not based in South Wales, so I can’t always train with them. But when we do, it’s always a laugh, it’s always fun.

It’s hard work, but it’s really, really nice. I also think that Wales has a lot of hardworking people, and we just want to get to the top.

What do you like to do away from training and competing?

I have a lot of hobbies. I got into art and animation when I was quite young. About two years ago I learnt 3D animation, and I just started to design animations to try and create them. I’ve always loved seeing animated movies, stop motion, stuff like that.

Then I got into cake design. I’ve made about 15 or 16 cakes now. My favourite to do was a Groot cake, but I’ve also done Wallace and Gromit, Toy Story, cars, bikes. A lot of my teammates say I should go on Great British Bake Off, that would be really cool.

I’m looking to do animation at Uni in Cardiff. I’ve been looking into studios to work for, and Disney is a big dream. That would be awesome, working on an animated film. University may have to wait until after athletics. I don’t think I can do both at the same time.

You already juggle two things, training and coaching. How has your experience of coaching been?

I’ve been coaching for two years now and it’s great – when they listen!

I coach the kids from about 5 or 6 up until 18. So, I coach the whole range. I help them with shot, discus, hammer, javelin, all the throwing events. It’s been really lovely to be able to see them improve quite a lot.

I’ve got a little one at the moment who is so energetic, and I’ve taught him to do a dance that helps him rotate his hips and feet. He loves it and I’m trying to get him to shout when he throws too. That energy is what I love about coaching.

Does it take you back to when you were that age?

Yeah, it does 100%. I got into sport through my brother. I was sick and tired of sitting in the back of the car, travelling every weekend for rugby and athletics. I joined in and did a few different sports to see what I liked, eventually landing on discus and shot.

One day, in my early days as a kid, we were training in the cage. Someone managed to hit a wasp’s nest with a throw! Suddenly there’s this swarm of wasps heading for us. I think that was the fastest I’ve ever ran, running to the car. To this day, I can’t go near wasps.

You are the world record holder going into a Paralympics, do you feel the pressure now?

No matter how many competitions you’ve been to before, you’re always going to feel the pressure. It doesn’t really ever settle, especially in the Paras, because it’s the biggest competition that you can do.

For me, I don’t really think about it until I have to. I have my million and one hobbies that keeps my mind focused away from throwing.

Once I’m out there, ready to throw, it’s all about proving a point. I’ve been training 16 years for this and now it’s my time. I’ve proved it at the World Championships and now it’s the same for the Paralympics.

So, now you’re going to Paris essentially to beat yourself. What will be success for you at the Paralympics?

I want a PB. A personal best is the most important thing for me. I’d love to keep the world record and win gold, but if I focus on myself and get a PB, I’ll be happy.

Image Credit: ParalympicsGB/David Pearce

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