CLEGG Stephen

Classification
S12, SB12, SM12 (IPC, 21 Jan 2021)

Type of Impairment
Vision impairment (thesouthernreporter.co.uk, 29 Mar 2010)

Impairment Details
At age nine he was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a deteriorating genetic eye condition that affects central vision. His siblings Elizabeth and James are also affected by the condition. (radiotimes.com, 12 Sep 2016)

General
TECHNIQUE
In order to keep his bearings in the pool he counts his strokes. "For swimming, there's not really that much I can see. So there's flags when you're doing backstroke to kind of show you how close you are to the pool [edge] and I can't see them at all, so I have to rely on count for that, I just count my strokes each length. And over the years I've kind of got that very, very consistent so I know where I am in the pool with each stroke I take. Every now and then it doesn't play out very well, and I sometimes miss a turn or nearly hit my head off the wall, which isn't always fun." (Bruce McKenzie YouTube channel, 03 Sep 2019)

SIBLINGS
He says his relationships with his brother and sister have been influenced by his siblings' respective sports. "We [he and brother James] had a lot of rivalry, especially when we swam at the same time because I was always trying to break his British records and things like that. But it was always really good for me to have my sister around, especially for Rio [in 2016] because in my first couple of races I was very nervous, so it was kind of nice having her in the Paralympic village with me. Still today I call my sister for advice on how to deal with certain situations, which is really nice to have." (Bruce McKenzie YouTube channel, 03 Sep 2019)