Newstead's road to Athens

By Isabel Newstead
British Paralalympic shooter

I started shooting after an operation in 1982, but at that time it was more of a hobby than anything else as I was a swimmer and had won a Paralympic medal in 1980.

After the surgery I felt I would not be able to be as competitive at swimming as before but I wasn't ready to quit disabled sport altogether.

Isabel Newstead is going for another gold in Athens

I then switched to field athletics and the throwing events (shot, discus and javelin).

I won gold in the discus in Seoul in 1988 and also took bronze in the the ladies air-pistol but I was picking up too many shoulder injuries and I realised I had to concentrate on just one sport.

I had reached a good standard with my shooting and with the shoulder problems, staying with it seemed the most sustainable.

A couple of different factors meant I missed out on medals in 1992 in Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta which were big disappointments, but it helped change my mental approach completely.

In 1998 I was second in the world championships and then won gold at the Sydney Paralympics and repeated the feat at the World Championships last year.

I am now in heavy winter training but I will stay out of competition until at least the middle of January.

I am firing lots of shots with the emphasis on quantity rather than quality and have also gone back to the drawing board with my technique.

I am using a laser training device which, with the aid of a computer, helps to replay my action and execution and is proving to be an invaluable training aid

I will only take a couple of days off training at Christmas. We will have family coming to the house but with the Games so close now, it is important not to miss too much training.

At the start of the year myself and John (husband and coach) took some time off and went to New Zealand because we knew we wouldn't be able to take that much time off again until after the Paralympics.

We were also in Athens in September for the celebrations to mark a year to the start of the Games. It brought home to me how soon the Games are and how every day counts.

Isabel will be writing a regular diary for this website ahead of the Athens Paralympics.