Wheelchair Rugby My Experience –
Kylie Grimes "best decision I could've made"
I broke my neck in 2006 when I was only 18 years old, I had always competed in sports up to county level so I knew I had to find a sport to get me fit and strong again after my accident.
I was in Stanmore Spinal unit for four months and during that time I saw the guys training for London Wheelchair Rugby Club. I decided to go and give it ago in 2008 once I was settled at home and in a good routine with my new life. It was the best decision I could have made, after a few months I started feeling stronger, healthier and had made new friends along the way. I was enjoying playing a competitive sport again and could see I was improving all the time within the sport and at home with my independence. For the first time in a couple of years I was confident again, something I really struggled with loosing as nothing fazed me before my accident.
Roll on three years, I had been really enjoying playing for London and competing in the yearly super series but I was ready to go further. I had a call up in June 2011 to go and have a trial weekend with the GB team in Leeds against Canada.
I was over the moon and something I'd been hoping for. We had a great line-up of 3.5, 2.5, 2 and me who could play as a 0. We beat Canada 6 out of the 7 games we played that weekend and it felt unbelievable. That was the start of my GB journey and one I won't forget.
I was then stuck with the team and training hard, moving forward we had so much coming up, I was selected for the Europeans where we took the silver medal. Then onto the London 2012 Paralympic Games which was the most amazing experience ever. We didn't perform as we wanted finishing 5th but I will never forget the support from the British public and competing in front of 12,000 people. The roar from the crowd was breath taking. My family came in red wigs and team Kylie t-shirts to support me and we can all share those amazing memories for life.
I left the GB Wheelchair Rugby team in 2014 as I wanted to focus on myself in an individual sport and I'm now part of the British Athletics team and competed in Rio. I will always play rugby though as I enjoy it so much and am loyal to my club LondonWRC.