Tokyo Paralympics: Lucy Robinson hopeful of GB wheelchair basketball medal
- Published
Lucy Robinson first represented Great Britain at junior level in 2018
Lucy Robinson believes Great Britain's women can achieve wheelchair basketball medal glory at the Paralympics.
The 22-year-old from Leicestershire is the youngest member of the squad and is set to make her senior debut in Tokyo.
Robinson took up the sport in her teens after breaking her hip in a fall while roller skating.
"There's a really good vibe. We're feeling confident and in the best place we can be going into Tokyo," she told BBC Radio Leicester.
"Obviously, with everything that's happened, we're just going to go out and do our best but I really do think we could get a medal."
The team have never reached the podium at the Paralympics, although the men have done so at four of the last six events - with a silver in Atlanta in 1996 followed by three bronzes.
The women are, though, currently ranked number two in the world.
Robinson's journey to Tokyo really began 10 years ago when her childhood roller-skating accident led to the onset of a condition called avascular necrosis.
"Since then it's just been a lot of operations. Basically my hip came out and now I've got this lifelong medical condition," she said.
"It was really hard at first because I was so obsessed with football, I wanted to be a footballer. It took me a couple of years to adjust, to know that wouldn't be the case.
"Every appointment I went to, my question was 'can I play football again?' Eventually they said you're not going to be able to. Five or six years ago I got into basketball."
In 2018, she helped Great Britain win gold at the Under-24 European Championships and added to her medal collection with a bronze at the Under-25 World Championships in Thailand the following year.
The Paralympics will run from 24 August to 5 September with the GB women starting their campaign against Canada on day two.
"Putting on my shirt for the first time, in my very first game for the senior team, with the number 12 on the back, and Robinson on the back, that will feel amazing," she added.
"Being picked hasn't really sunk in. I know I feel really proud but maybe it will when I start packing or maybe when I get off the plane that I'll feel proper excited."
ParalympicsGB women's wheelchair basketball squad: Charlotte Moore, Sophie Carrigill, Kayla Bell, Helen Freeman, Laurie Williams, Jude Hamer, Amy Conroy, Maddie Thompson, Lucy Robinson, Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Joy Haizelden, Robyn Love.
Lucy Robinson was speaking to BBC Radio Leicester's Summaya Mughal