Congratulations Sophie! ...
A teenager from Hull, Sophie Mae Carter, has flown the flag for Hull and Team GB. Sophie Mae Carter is a member of Special Olympics City of Hull Swimming Club and a pupil of Ganton Secondary School, Hull. She was selected to represent Team GB at the Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi in March 2019!
This was a massive achievement as Sophie is one of only 7 swimmers in Team GB. For this World Games, Team SOGB sent a delegation of 128 athletes to the Abu Dhabi 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games, joining 7,000 Special Olympians from more than 170 countries to take part in 17 sports.
The 15th Special Olympics World Summer Games took place from 14th–21st March 2019. Special Olympics is for athletes with intellectual (learning) disabilities and this was the largest sporting and humanitarian event to take place anywhere in the world in 2019.
Sophie was selected for this fantastic opportunity due to her dedication and achievements. She has been an active and valued member of Special Olympics City of Hull Team since she was 10 years old. She started her swimming training with Hull Optimists SC (Halliwick ASTRA 5) under the guidance of Halliwick-trained coach, Karen Brockwell. She continues to swim with the Optimists as well as with Special Olympics, City of Hull.
To say she is passionate about swimming is an understatement and she never misses any of her training sessions.
She has also represented City of Hull at the National British Disability Swimming Championships for the last 5 years. She was an outstanding team member for the Yorkshire & Humberside region in 2017 at the Special Olympics National Summer Games in Sheffield, where she achieved 2 personal bests and a silver medal in her individual events, as well as being part of a gold medal winning relay team.
It’s not just her swimming ability that makes Sophie such a valued member of our club but also her sportsmanship and her lively, bubbly and friendly disposition. She is also a keen footballer and dancer.
Sophie went on to achieve the team’s first gold medal in the relay race, and brought home a bronze medal for the 50m breaststroke race. In her final race, Sophie came fourth in the front crawl. An amazing achievement for the youngest in the Squad.
Since returning home Sophie has had the pleasure of tea with the Lord Mayor of Hull, switching on the Hull Christmas lights to name just a couple of special events.
Congratulations Sophie; you were an excellent ambassador for City of Hull!
