BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2022: Para-athlete Olivia Breen wins

Para-athlete Olivia Breen shocked by BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2022 award

Para-athlete Olivia Breen is the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year for 2022.

In August, Breen won Commonwealth Games gold as she beat English rival Sophie Hahn in a spectacular T37/38 100m race in Birmingham.

Breen's top career win was earned with a personal best time of 12.83 seconds.

"I'm shocked. I didn't expect to win [the award]... this is a massive honour with such strong performances in Welsh sport," said Breen.

"Being part of the team was just amazing and being a team captain [in athletics] with Osian Jones was a real special moment for me.

"At Team Wales everyone was so supportive, we supported one another and also after Covid, it makes you appreciate life and having a crowd as well."

The 26-year-old's medal was the first by a Welsh woman on the track at a Commonwealth Games since Kay Morley won the 100m hurdles in 1990 in Auckland.

Breen has so often had to play second fiddle to Hahn.

The previous year Breen could only look on from seventh as Hahn defended her Paralympic T38 title at the Tokyo Games.

But in Birmingham the tables were finally turned as Breen produced the performance of her career.

Commonwealth Games 2022: Olivia Breen wins gold in T37/T38 100m

Her emotional post-race interview in Birmingham proved to be one of the most memorable moments of the Games.

"Getting any kind of medal would've been amazing but getting a gold was so special, and having my family and friends there was amazing," she added.

"I've had a rivalry with Sophie Hahn for nine years now, she's been winning for years and I think it made the rivalry.

"It shows that hard work pays off."

Breen was selected for the BBC Cymru Wales award by an expert panel chaired by Welsh Rugby Union performance director Nigel Walker, and consisting of Paralympic great Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Leshia Hawkins the Cricket Wales chief executive, former Wales footballer and netball player Nia Jones and Sport Wales' Owen Lewis.

"Olivia Breen was the unanimous choice of the panel to be Wales' Sports Personality of the Year 2022 for her outstanding performance during Birmingham 2002," Walker said.

"It was a performance which resonated across the UK as it was replayed for many days following her breath-taking performance in defeating defending champion, and heavy favourite, Sophie Hahn.

"It was a performance which was one of the outstanding highlights of the whole Games. The quality of the performance was evident but it was also the way her obvious delight was shared by those lucky enough to be in the stadium - and also by many of the millions watching on television. A truly special moment.

"There were honourable mentions for skier Menna Fitzpatrick who added to her vast collection of medals on the world stage despite a late change of guide, for Gareth Bale whose outstanding performances in qualification meant that Wales appeared in its first men's football World Cup since 1958 and for Jeremiah Azu who announced his arrival as senior track and field athlete with eye catching performances in the Commonwealth Games and European Championships."

Breen also competes in the F38 long jump category and is now focusing on the World Para-Athletics Championships in Paris in July 2023.

"I've been injured the last six weeks but I'm getting back into it," added Breen.

"Its been my knee, when I was on a training camp in Portugal.

"I was on such a high but came back to training and everything was going really well, so it was a bit of a low but I've got to keep positive and it will come.

"I want more PB's [in Paris], more medals, to get faster, stronger and jump further. That's my main goal."

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