School Games and my Olympic goals

Inspired by the School Games competition, wheelchair basketball player Mark ‘Fossy’ Fosbrook tells us what motivates him to strive to be the best.

I have always used sport as a platform to show that my disability doesn’t affect me or stop me from achieving my goals. From a young age I have had a passion for sport and have dedicated my life to this. All of my education was focused on working within the sports industry and my experience ranges from managing fitness clubs, teaching and developing sport and managing sport at an elite level. I even met my wife through sport and have used the tragic loss of my stillborn daughter to motivate me in sport.
I first started playing wheelchair basketball when I was 12 and continued to play until I was 16, but then stopped. However, 10 years ago I was reunited with my passion for the sport and have been working towards achieving excellence ever since.

Motivating future sports stars

On Wednesday I joined Jeremy Hunt in hosting a school sport summit to inspire young people at the Richard Rose Central Academy, and to invite schools to sign up to the School Games competition.
In truth, I was the one that was inspired by the enthusiasm of everyone I met at the school, in particular the young sports leaders who want to be involved. The visit started with an informal Q&A session with a group of young leaders. Jeremy gave a very inspirational talk about the School Games before he opened up the questions to the audience and it was great to hear so much discussion about volunteering, determination and how we should encourage disabled pupils to get involved.
It was a fantastic opportunity to share my experiences and motivate the children and staff to be involved with the School Games.

New goals

‘Fully charged’ with the positivity surrounding the visit to Richard Rose Central Academy, my thoughts are now switching to my preparation to be selected for the Men’s team for London 2012. I have a chance of making the squad and I need to prove myself to the coach, so it’s head down for some hard training to show that I have what he’s looking for.
I’m confident that every member of the squad has the potential to be selected and I know that whoever is successful will give their all in the pursuit of a medal. I have always used sport as a platform to show that my disability doesn’t affect me or stop me from achieving my ambitions and securing a place in that team is my next goal, and one that I’m fully focussed on.
A training session beckons now, so I’m off to give another 100 per cent!
Visit Mark Fosbrook’s website. You can also follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter.