06 March 2024 , 06:30
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Swimmer Stephen Clegg is adopting an ‘all play, no stress’ mindset as he gears up for the Paris Paralympic Games.
The S12 star took the pressure off his performances in this Paralympic cycle, instead seeing everything as a dress rehearsal for what happens in the French capital this summer. But now that his date with destiny is firmly on the horizon, his focus is lasering in on being the best he can be come Games-time.
"The cycle has been fun,” the 28-year-old said. “I'd say straight after Tokyo, I took some time to reflect on how I approached the last six or seven years of sport at that point.
“And I completely changed it up. I wanted to approach sport with a lot more enjoyment and a play-like mindset and not get too worked up on each season.
“I started to see it as a bigger picture of, ‘Okay, well, this is towards Paris, not just I want to win X amount of medals at this World Championships or European Championships.
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“By having a lot more of a play mindset, I'm taking a lot more pressure off myself, which is really nice. For example, World Champs last summer, I went in with an expectation to win the 100 fly again and I fell short. I wasn't really too heartbroken by it because I knew this was a process and what really matters was how we perform in Paris.”
Clegg is approaching his third Paralympic Games, having made his debut in Rio before returning from Tokyo with three medals. The University of Edinburgh-based swimmer claimed a British record en route to the 100m backstroke title at a home World Championships last year having earlier broken the 50m backstroke world record.
Clegg became the first S12 swimmer to go below 28 seconds when setting the world record but he is trying not to focus on times in the build-up to Paris.
He added: “I think the key is just remembering why it is you love the sport in the first place. I think some people quite often forget why it is they do what they do when they reach high-performance levels, just because it does become very goal-orientated and outcome-focused.
“I think for me, I just enjoy challenging myself and pushing myself and I think that's what I actually love, which makes sport a really good environment for me because I get to challenge myself week in, week out.”
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games - Swimming - Men's 100m Butterfly - S12 Heat 2 - Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Tokyo, Japan - September 3, 2021. Stephen Clegg of Britain in action REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (Reuters via Beat Media)Clegg comes from a sporting family with both brother James and sister Libby having also represented ParalympicsGB. James also competed in swimming, winning bronze at London 2012, while Libby won two sprint golds on the track at Rio.
Clegg is one of over 1,000 elite athletes supported by UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing him to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support.
And he is acutely aware of the impact National Lottery players have on helping further propel his career forward.
“The National Lottery is remarkable,” he said. “They keep all the lights on, in amateur sport across the country. It has given me and every other para-athlete in the country the opportunity to really show what people with disabilities are capable of.
“The National Lottery has really given us an opportunity to show that we can compete with the best in the world and that if you remove the restrictions, we're capable of anything.”
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National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport – from grassroots to elite. Find out how your numbers make amazing happen at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk #TNLAthletes #MakeAmazingHappen