Richard Chiassaro

1. Tell us about yourself and your journey to becoming a Paralympian?

I started wheelchair racing at 28, I was a wheelchair basketball player before then. I knew I was a fast player in basketball and went to an open day to try wheelchair racing and it all started from there. I started training at Mark Hall Sports Centre in a borrowed chair and eventually was coached by Ken Day. I still carried on playing basketball but wheelchair racing was my focus. I competed in races all across England and started to climb the national rankings, my first big invitational race was the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester where I won my first goal medal. From here I carried on training and working towards London 2012. I wasn’t selected for London 2012 - I was gutted at the time but this fuelled me to train harder and work towards GB selection for the World Championships in Doha the following year. I was selected for Doha and since then have been selected for all major European, World Championships & my first Paralympics in Rio. It took a lot of training, a lot of set backs and a lot of learning experiences to get to where I am today .

2. How have you adapted your training ahead of Tokyo 2021 and during lock-down?

Training with out a track is hard. I’ve spent years planning my life around the track and it is definitely a huge part of my training routine. This year was going to be a big year especially leading up to Tokyo so the training plans have had to be changed and adapted by my coach Jenni and we are adapting them to keep fit and trying to keep as race ready as we can just in case there are any races this year. I am having to drive to different locations to train on the roads, which isn’t ideal but better than nothing. I also have a set of portable rollers than I am using to train at home if I can’t train on the roads. I have a gym bench at home so I have been doing adapted gym training sessions at home however I can’t wait to just get back to normal and train where I want - when I want .

3. You were a good wheelchair basketball player, but what led you to wheelchair racing instead and do you still play basketball?

If my coach’s ask, then no I don’t play but I might train once or twice a week ;). I’m not signed to a team as I can’t commit to games especially during a Paralympic year but once I stop racing I’ll be back on the court full time again. I enjoy basketball it’s what I use to wind down from all the intense track training but it does come with a risk of injuries and fast basketballers do get fouled a lot so I can’t risk that before a major competition.

4. How do you pick yourself up after knockdowns such as; not being picked for London 2012 to then win the T54 200m gold at the European Championships as well as silver in the 100m, 400m and 800m 4 years later in Italy?

I just had to get on with it, it hurt at the time especially as the London Paralympics were half an hour from my house but I had a choice either quit or carry on and aim for the next big competition. It was good winning medals at the Europeans however the T54 racers are the fastest in the world and some of those racers weren’t at the Europeans so I knew I still had to beat them on a World or Paralympic level. That’s always been my goal.

5. How did you get into coaching at Harlow Athletics club?

I have always trained at Mark Hall and to make myself a better athlete I had to learn the coaching techniques behind the sport. Initially I supported Ken Day coaching junior athletes and as Ken slowly took on less athletes (he’s in his mid 70’s), I eventually took on more athletes. Now I’m head coach of a squad of wheelchair athletes ranging from the age of 6- 40 ish. The squad has athletes with a range of disabilities, they train together as a squad twice a week on the track and have training logs for the other days. On squad nights I lead 2 sessions - a development squad session and a senior squad session. This allows me to give all athletes time and also allows new racers to learn safely with out causing crashes on the track with senior racers flying round.

6. What advice would you give someone interested in wheelchair racing?

Do it. Just give it a try. That’s all I did, I went to an open day and thought I wanted to get faster and beat the athletes who were leading the day. For some racers racing is all about winning and climbing the rankings aiming for world selection. For others it’s more about training within a community and working towards individual goals - it doesn’t matter what your goal is but having one to work towards is important .

7. What are your ambitions over the next 5 years?

To medal at the next Paralympics. I want to improve my bronze medal in the 400m and medal in another event. The same for the World Championships in 2021. I always go into a competition wanting to win it - a medal is the minimum goal for me at these competitions. If I get a PB in the 400m or 800m this could be a world record - that’s another goal I’m working towards.

8. How much of an impact does the media have in raising the awareness and improving the competition of disability sport?

There’s still a gap between able bodied and Paralympic sport. From when I started racing, media coverage has improved but it’s still not even close to being on the same platform as able-bodied athletics. During the Dubai World Championships it was just streamed online with a 1 hour programme a week on a Sunday for TV coverage to cover the whole week. In my opinion and many other athletes’ it could easily be improved. It can have a huge impact, after London 2012 and London 2017 World Championships I had many athletes who had been inspired to start racing but the coverage and support isn’t there outside of the UK .

9. After vandals destroyed your wheelchair ahead of Rio 2016, do you think the bronze you won proved how successful you could have been?

I was placed 4th in Rio but won Bronze in London 2017. The vandalized chair did impact on my training but I was able to source a chair just to do my winter training in. The chair wasn’t fitted for me and I had to train for months in it before I could afford and get a custom chair made. You can’t just pop to a shop and buy a new race chair so it did affect my training.

10. How does it feel when you break a world record?

Well I had mine for 10 days. At the time it was a great feeling, I broke it in a race full of the best racers in the world and any one of us was capable of winning the race. It was an intense race to be in and for people to watch, even though I broke the World Record, four other racers went under the old world record which shows just how fast it was. The record had stood for over 10 years, I broke it, and then 10 days later it was broken by Daniel Romanchuk who had been in the race that I broke the WR in. Before the race I wasn’t even sure if I was going to do it but on my warm up lap, Brent Lakatos shouted to me to do it - we’d spoken about the pace of my 400m and he was sure I could do it. I doubted myself but as soon as the race started and I could see how other racers were positioned I knew I had a chance, but it wasn’t easy and to be honest I didn’t know it was a WR until I heard the commentator shouting after we crossed the line.