'People doubted I would walk again'- Olympic rower

Gold medallists Georgina Brayshaw, Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott and Lauren Henry celebrate on the podium after winning

Team GB rower Georgina Brayshaw has celebrated her Olympic medal win, after a difficult start to her sporting journey.

On Wednesday, the 30-year-old, from Harrogate, and crew-mates Lauren Henry, Lola Anderson and Hannah Scott claimed gold in a dramatic race to the line with the Netherlands.

The team won in six minutes 16.31 seconds, with the Dutch team just 0.15 seconds behind them.

Brayshaw said she had "worked really hard" to get there, after a childhood horse-riding accident nearly left her paralysed.

"Last night I couldn’t believe it, I was just in the sky," she told the BBC.

"This morning, I woke up at 05:00 and I had to touch my medal to know it actually happened and now it’s sinking in."

Brayshaw, who started her Team GB journey at a rowing club in Leeds, explained she did not take up the sport until she was an adult, preferring horse-riding as a child.

"I was horse mad from the age of seven to when the accident happened," she said.

"I’m very lucky to be where I am today but people doubted that I would ever walk or feed myself again.

"I just wasn’t about that, I like to prove people wrong so I’ve worked really hard to get where I am with extra bits of training. It’s all paid off."

Brayshaw's parents said they were "so, so proud" of their daughter's achievement.

Father Bob Brayshaw said: "It's been a long journey for Georgie, this is just incredible.

"It's an out-of-body experience almost, it's unreal."

Her mother Catherine said her daughter, then 15, suffered what doctors believed to be life-changing injuries and was in a coma for eight days.

Through extensive rehabilitation and physiotherapy, Brayshaw managed to fully recover and discovered her love of rowing while at the University of Northampton.

"She was sporty but not in a big way. She tried out a few clubs at university but didn't really like them," Mr Brayshaw said.

"It was me that actually suggested - and I'm not taking any glory for it - what about rowing? And so she went to the rowing club."

In 2023, Brayshaw, who now lives in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, became World Champion in the women’s quad – the first time GB had won gold in that boat class since 2010.

Asked how it felt to be an Olympic champion, she said: "Unbelievable, incredible.

"I've not landed, I don't know what's just happened.

"I've been rowing for 10 years and I just thought back to every hard session that I have ever done and that just got me over the line."

Catherine and Bob Brayshaw said they were "so proud" of their daughter

Brayshaw's fiancé, Ashley Tuton, said her win had left him "lost for words".

He said: "Seeing her on that podium smiling - I have never seen her smile like that before.

"That is a dream-come-true kind of smile."

The couple are due to get married in May next year with the entire quad set to be bridesmaids.

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