HENSHAW Charlotte

Type of Impairment
Limb deficiency (charlottehenshaw.co.uk, 11 May 2012)

Origin of Impairment
Congenital (charlottehenshaw.co.uk, 11 May 2012)

Impairment Details
She was born with bilateral tibial hypoplasia. Both of her legs were amputated above the knee at age 18 months. (charlottehenshaw.co.uk, 11 May 2012)

General
SWITCHING SPORTS
She previously competed as a swimmer, winning silver at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and bronze at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She was planning to retire from sport altogether after the 2016 Games but decided instead to try a different sport, and trained with the British Para cycling and Para triathlon team before choosing to pursue Para canoe. "I knew going into the Rio games that it would potentially be my last Paralympics as a swimmer and at that time my last Paralympics in total. I remember sitting at the closing ceremony at Rio thinking, 'Crikey I really don't want this to be it'. I wasn't sure that I could do another four years swimming as I think that I had reached my peak and the age profile of swimming is much younger than other sports. When I retired from swimming I knew that I still wanted to be part of the Paralympic movement in some way and I thought, 'Well I live in Nottinghamshire, they [GB Para canoe] are based in Nottingham, it's close by' and I thought I will go and give it a go. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did and as soon as I got in a boat I felt that this was a challenge that I wanted to take on." (thebigkickoff.com, 05 Jun 2020; Some Essex Lad and a Paralympian podcast, 10 Sep 2020)

RETIREMENT PLANS
She has previously worked with UK Sport, the government agency responsible for investing into Olympic and Paralympic sport in Great Britain. Her experiences there, combined with her love for sport, have made her consider staying in sport once she retires. "I've always been passionate about sport, it's been my life since I was tiny. I considered during my A-Levels and university whether I wanted to finish it but I think people who have been involved in sport have so much to offer when they hang up their paddle and it's really important to have people who have been involved in sport staying involved. Working with UK Sport was really eye-opening. I met people who were working in departments I didn't even know existed and it was really nice to understand the cogs in that machine that make sport in this country move. I'm definitely interested in exploring that." (British Canoeing YouTube channel, 14 Aug 2019)