Alice Tai

Started: She began swimming at age eight with the New Milton Seagulls Swimming Club in Christchurch, England. (advertiserandtime.co.uk, 08 Sep 2020; newforest.gov.uk, 12 Mar 2012) Reason: "I came into sports for two reasons. Firstly, I lived by the sea when I was younger and my parents were adamant that I should know how to swim if we ever went to the beach. Second, when I was younger, I had 14 surgeries by the age of 12 and I used water as a rehab because each time I had surgery, I had to re-learn how to walk and it was a good way to stay active and fit. Then when I was a bit older I realised I could be classified as a disability swimmer and so I started training and competing." (mag.toyota.co.uk, 02 Mar 2020; bournemouthecho.co.uk, 16 Sep 2016; newforest.gov.uk, 12 Mar 2012; bbc.co.uk, 08 Dec 2011) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (eurosport.com, 17 Jul 2023) Awards: She was named in the top 50 of The Telegraph newspaper's 2019 Women of the Year list. (swimming.org, 19 Dec 2019) She was named the 2019 Sunday Times Disability Sportswoman of the Year. (britishswimming.org, 22 Nov 2019) At the 2019 British Swimming Awards she was named Para Swimmer of the Year and received the Maurice Watkins Champion Athlete Award [for the overall British Swimming Athlete of the Year]. She was the first Para swimmer to win the overall award. (britishswimming.org, 15 Sep 2023, 10 Nov 2019; advertiserandtime.co.uk, 08 Sep 2020) She was voted International Paralympic Committee [IPC] Athlete of the Month for September 2019. (britishswimming.org, 15 Oct 2019) She was named Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire [MBE] in the 2017 New Year Honours list. (paralympic.org, 31 Dec 2016) She was named the 2016 Youth Sport Trust Young Sportsperson of the Year in England. (swimming.org, 23 Mar 2017) Additional Info: ENGLISH CHANNEL SWIM In September 2023 she led a six-person team that completed a relay swim of the English Channel between Great Britain and France. The group made the crossing of more than 33 kilometres in eight hours and 49 minutes. "It's been an inspiring experience as none of us had any formal sea swimming experience, and one of the participants couldn't even swim before the challenge. My training for the Channel swim has been a little different than the rest of the team, as I needed to be mindful of my normal training routine which has been ramping up ahead of the Paris [Paralympic] Games. It's been five months in the making of strict training, both physically and mentally to get prepared for the challenge. I feel overcome with emotions. There were points where it felt almost unachievable, but we came together as a team and really pushed our level [of] endurance to keep going." (bbc.co.uk, 09 Oct 2023; outdoorswimmer.com, 03 Oct 2023; ealing.news, 29 Sep 2023) OTHER ACTIVITIES She served as part of the athlete advisory group for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and worked as a pundit for British television network Channel 4 as part of their coverage of the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. "I loved being on the sofa [for Channel 4], doing some punditry, I thought it was a great experience, but also it was really difficult to sit there and watch the races that I would've been in and then have to comment on it." (bbc.co.uk, 03 Dec 2023; eurosport.com, 17 Jul 2023; nationalworld.com, 26 Aug 2021; Facebook profile, 12 Nov 2020; britishswimming.org, 12 Nov 2020) DOCUMENTARY In 2023 she featured in a documentary broadcast on British television network Channel 4 called 'Amputating Alice'. (channel4.com, 24 Aug 2023) MUSICIAN She has played electric guitar and bass in a band called 'Blush!'. The group released their debut single in 2021. "I always just enjoyed music. We will be putting some music out just because we enjoy it. If other people like it enough to make a career out of it, then that's great as well." (Facebook profile, 20 Aug 2021, 11 Feb 2021; Twitter profile, 23 Feb 2021; mag.toyota.co.uk, 02 Mar 2020; telegraph.co.uk, 31 Dec 2020) STUDIES In September 2019 she began studying neuroscience at Middlesex University London in England. She had previously studied music at the University of West London before transferring. (Twitter profile, 04 Sep 2023; paralympic.org, 05 Sep 2019; telegraph.co.uk, 09 Sep 2019; mdx.ac.uk, 19 Dec 2019)

Sporting Relatives: Her younger brother Christian Tai has competed in swimming, including at the 2018 British Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland. (paralympic.org, 28 May 2020; SportsDeskOnline, 27 Jul 2020)