KINGHORN Samantha

Classification
T53 (IPC, 03 Mar 2021)

Type of Impairment
Spinal Cord Injuries (dailyrecord.co.uk, 09 Jul 2014)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (dailyrecord.co.uk, 09 Jul 2014)

Impairment Details
In December 2010 she was helping clear the snow at her family's farm. Her father was driving a forklift to help the process. "I climbed on to the forklift while my dad was driving it. He didn't see me and lowered the beam on top of me, which caused a fracture to my spinal cord. I ran forward and slipped into all the snow that had been compacted, which knocked the spinal cord. I had no idea what was happening, although I knew straight away that I was not going to walk again." (dailyrecord.co.uk, 09 Jul 2014)

General
DEALING WITH PRESSURE
She feels there is more expectation for her to perform well since establishing herself as an elite Para athlete, but also believes that she has learned how to deal with pressure and nerves. "I'm at the stage where people are beginning to expect things from me. I go to an event and it's not the same as when I was 17 because people are expecting me to come home with medals now. Now though, I'm used to that. I know I'll probably feel really horrible on the day of the race but I always tell myself I feel like that because I'm passionate about my sport and it's because I want to do well. It's just adrenaline and as soon as the gun goes, I'm in my element and I'm doing what I love. In those hours before the race, you do wonder why you do it but then when the race starts, I know exactly why I do it." (heraldscotland.com, 09 Sep 2018, 01 Apr 2018)

FARM LIFE
She grew up on her family's farm near Gordon, Scotland, and from age five she began delivering lambs. "Things like helping out with the night lambing I can no longer do because I can't miss training the next day. It is heartbreaking because it is something I really enjoy. When I was a kid, I would take time out of school and my friend and I would do night lambing. We would stay awake all night so that my dad could sleep and then do the whole day." In 2020 her father gifted her a pet lamb named Ruby. "My dad would never get me one [when she was younger] because they are like a baby and you have to feed them through the night. For now she [Ruby] will live on the farm and hopefully have lambs in the next few years but one day I would really love to have my own piece of land so I can have her outside my door." (heraldscotland.com, 20 Mar 2016; paralympic.org, 14 May 2020; Instagram profile, 12 Jan 2021)