'There are no limitations' - Stephen Thomas targets sixth Paralympics in Beijing
- Published
Stephen Thomas (r) trains with the Great Britain Para Nordic skiing team.
Five-time Paralympian Stephen Thomas says an 'itch to compete' brought him out of retirement in a bid to make a sixth Paralympics in a third different sport.
The 45-year-old Welshman went to four Summer Paralympic Games in sailing from 2004 to 2016 and competed in the 2006 Winter Games in Para ice hockey.
His retirement after Rio 2016 was only temporary, after he heard GB Snowsport were looking to develop their Para Nordic skiing programme.
"I thought I'd never be this position again," Thomas told BBC Sport Wales.
"After retiring after Rio I thought life was just going to move on and go into different areas.
"Then I just had an itch really. Something just wasn't quite right. I missed that competitive element to my life.
"One of my colleagues in sailing said Para Nordic skiing are looking to develop a programme and are looking for athletes - would you like to go and try out? So I went and tried it out and loved it.
"Three years on, here I am, looking to go to Beijing."
Thomas (middle) went to four consecutive Summer Paralympic Games in sailing from Athens 2004 to Rio 2016.
Thomas competed in the mixed three-person sonar class alongside Hannah Stodel and John Robertson over a 13-year period that saw them secure four top-10 finishes at Paralympic Games and win three world titles.
In his early days of sailing, he also represented Great Britain at para ice hockey (then called ice sledge hockey). The team finished seventh at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin.
Having conquered the ocean and the ice, it was the snow that tempted Thomas out of retirement in 2018.
The double amputee now competes in the men's sitting class in cross-country skiing. He races on a carbon rig with two skis attached to the bottom, propelled purely by the power he can generate through a ski pole in each hand.
"It's been a challenge," he admitted.
"I underestimated the amount of volume required to get you up to standard. The sport is absolutely brutal.
"We've done two-and-a-half hours of base training this morning and my event is two-and-a-half minutes. So the amount of training required is really heavy.
Thomas recently competed at the World Para Snow Sports Championships in Lillehammer, Norway.
"But you can take elements from my different experiences in sailing and Para ice hockey and I've brought them into cross-country skiing."
More than two decades into his distinguished para sport career, Thomas still regularly thinks back to the moment this journey began.
As a teenager, he was a keen rugby player. But all that changed when he contracted meningitis.
He fell ill one evening and had to go to hospital the next morning. The next thing he remembers was waking from a coma six weeks later and being told he'd have to have both legs amputated.
"I just wanted to get out the bed, get fit again and do something new," he recalled. "I just wanted to move my life on.
"Some people would call it a tragedy but actually it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. So I wanted to make that sacrifice worth it.
"My family went through the ringer with it as well. So every day I step out onto the ocean, the ice, the snow - I've got them in mind as well. The people who supported me back home.
'There are no limitations'
"You'll never forget that moment," he continued, "where you wake up out of a coma and people just say 'you can do this and you're limited to that'.
"But myself and numerous people in this sport and other sports prove that there are no limitations. Actually it's all about your mindset.
"Adaptations are coming on now so people can run 100m in 10 seconds, people are able to sail round the world with disabilities, people are able to do 18km races in less than 45 minutes, sitting down on skis using just their arms.
"You just have to have the motivation to go out and find ways of doing what you want to do."
Whilst a sixth Paralympic Games in Beijing in March would be another huge milestone for Thomas, he accepts he remains something of a novice in cross-country skiing and is more focused on his own improvement.
Having been a dedicated athlete for so many years, he says he feels in good enough shape to continue beyond this winter and continue to develop his skills on skis.
Thomas' arrival in the world of Para Nordic skiing was unexpected, but welcome - and he isn't ready for it to be over yet.
