Ade Adepitan reveals why he got into sport

Hi, my name is Ade Adepitan, a Paralympian and TV presenter. The first time I really, um, decided that I wanted to be an Olympian or Paralympian because I didn't know about, um, Paralympians back then or an elite athlete let's say, it was when I watched the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and I was completely blown away by just the size of the event. The, the amazing, incredible athletes. I was suddenly inspired by people like Daley Thompson. Sebastian Coe, Edwin Moses. And to see that these guys were the best in the world at what they do, it was just fantastic. I used to be so into it that when I was watching the games at home on my sofa, I’d close my eyes. And as soon as the starter gun would go off, I'd start pumping my arms and imagining that I was there with thousands of people cheering me on in the stadium. And I just wanted to be the best athlete that I could possibly be. But another reason that, and probably the real reason why I wanted to take up sport and become a great athlete is because sport made me independent. It meant that I didn't have to rely on anybody to do anything. If I wanted to go to the shops, I was fit enough to get there myself. If I wanted to go to school, if I wanted to carry stuff around, I didn't have to rely on anyone because sport made me strong and it made me confident and it made me, I was able to communicate with anybody that I wanted to communicate with. And one of the greatest things about sport is that every day you can be better than you were the day before, because when you play sport, you train and then the next day you train and you can look back and say, I did it better than I did the day before. I think that is an amazing gift. That's why I love sport.