Bywater seeking elusive gold at seventh Paralympics after four bronze medals

By James Toney in Paris

You need the swaggering confidence of LeBron James and Steph Curry to emblazon the word 'legend' across your website but Terry Bywater lives up to the hype.

Readying himself for his seventh Paralympics, Bywater has been the thundering engine room of Great Britain's wheelchair basketball team for more than two decades, a player's player who is universally liked, respected and feared in equal measure.

Four times Bywater, now 41, has left the Games with a medal, all bronzes, the team perennially perched on the global podium, including three years ago in Tokyo.

But after being selected to carry Great Britain's flag in tonight's opening ceremony, alongside wheelchair tennis player Lucy Shuker, Bywater only has one colour in mind in Paris.

“The dream has always been gold and that's why I keep on going, keep on believing," he said.

"I'm 41 years old and I'm still feeling good, I'm training well and playing well and the experience I have helps the squad immensely. I've been around a bit but we've got two lads in this team at their first Games too, so the mix is really good. I like being the father figure of the squad and as long as I can stay healthy, fit and I'm worth my place in the squad why do I need to stop?

"I've given my life to this sport and hopefully I've shown anybody can do this. We want to be there on the very day and finally make that final, I'm quietly confident."

Bywater was born without a tibia and fibula in his left leg, resulting in its amputation when he was two years old. A decade later, he was introduced to the sport that would consume his life through an open day at his local club, the Teesside Lions.

He recalls falling out the chair '100 times' and ended up in hospital after his second training session, tumbling backwards and splitting his head open.

Bywater is one of a generation of athletes who have seen the fortunes of ParalympicsGB transform over the past three decades thanks to National Lottery funding, which allows him and his teammates to train full time and benefit from world class facilities, technology, and coaching.

However, wheelchair basketball remains arguably the most competitive event at the Games - in addition to Great Britain, Australia and the USA will consider themselves gold medal favourites, as will Germany, GB's first opponents on Thursday.

"If you'd said I'd still be going after Sydney then I wouldn't have believed you but I still feel the same excitement and pride about competing," he added.

"It was a dream come true to go to one Games but I've never lost the hunger, I still love this sport as much as when I first played.

It's hard to give up playing in front of 10,000 fans and it's even more special now I've got my wife and son in the crowd watching too."

But first Bywater will lead out the team at the Place de la Concorde alongside fellow forty something Shuker, also a four-time bronze medallist.

"I was absolutely shocked," said Shuker, who is the first wheelchair tennis player to be named as flagbearer since Peter Norfolk at London 2012. "I knew that I was nominated and shortlisted but the other girls who were shortlisted have way more achievements than myself so I just never thought that it would be me.

"From being told by people in the sport that I was too disabled to now be still competing and striving.

"I want to inspire those who are told no or that they can't, to push because I'm now a Paralympic flagbearer."

Bywater will be in action less than 12 hours after his flag duties in Paris but there was never any question he'd embrace the roll, after being nominated by fellow athletes.

"It is a dream, I never knew it was going to happen, I have to keep pinching myself, it doesn’t feel real,” he added.

"My peers have voted for me to carry the flag. I don’t know if that is because of my age and that everybody knows me.

"I think it was down to a bit of respect and what I have done for wheelchair basketball generally. I’ve won European Championships, World Championships, obviously haven’t got the Paralympic gold yet. It is a super proud moment in my life."

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