My name is Stuart Meikle and I am looking to represent Great Britain in Tokyo in the Paratriathlon.
I was born in 1975, so this has come quite late in athletic terms, I had my right leg amputated through the knee at the age of 6 months due to complications. In the early years artificial limbs were very basic with no joints but despite this I was walking before I was one year old and quickly learned to ride my bike. I participated in sports at both junior and senior school and did not let my disability hinder me. Obviously there were some restrictions but I took up mountain biking as a sport, due to basic nature of artificial leg design was not able to run competitively.
On leaving school I trained as a painter and decorator and in 1999 set up my own business which I continue today. I live in Bingley, West Yorkshire and am married with three young children. All my family are very keen athletes and it was when I took my children to training sessions at the local athletics club that I began to think that maybe with the right prosthetic leg I could do this, after all I had continued with my mountain biking so was still in pretty good condition. It was after supporting them all at the Great North Run, where you could not help but be inspired that I wanted to enter this race and other races myself in the future.
On visiting my local Prosthetic hospital in Leeds and explaining my ambition to run, they agreed to supply me with the latest Steeper blade running leg. This enabled me to enter a few 10K races, the first one in July 2017, and very quickly my times were improving significantly. The Steeper prosthetist also knew I was a keen mountain biker and offered to make me a new cycling leg with a revolutionary Kinergen Stream Knee which is a special joint to make cycling easier and on trying this out I decided to try to compete in the triathlon. I attended a training weekend at Loughborough University which is the GB headquarters for the triathlon and following that was selected to be part of the Paralympic Triathlon Talent Squad with the aim of representing my Country in the 2020 Tokyo games. In the meantime I am trying to train and gain as much experience in para triathlon as possible.
Stuart Meikle
64 Falcon Road
Bingley
West Yorkshire
BD16 4DW
Twitter: @stumeikletri