Ben Tansley was strapped to a hospital bed when he made his first venture into disability sport. Just three weeks earlier, life had been very different: his day-to-day was running the boxing gym he’d opened at 26 – a lifelong dream after his time in the ring as a youth – and parenting duties as the father of two young children. Then, on August 13, 2017, the family were on a typical day out, riding motorcycles to the coast
near their home in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, when Tansley was knocked from his bike. He suffered a T4 spinal injury and was paralysed from the chest down.
The British Paralympic Association was surprised to hear from him. “I said I wanted to get involved,” explains Tansley, now 38. “[The person I spoke to] said she’d never had anyone contact her about competing three weeks after being paralysed. But you have to make the best out of the worst situation, don’t you?”
Despite being told he’d never walk again, Tansley spent the following weeks determinedly attempting to wiggle a single toe. And just a day after his discharge from the Princess Royal Spinal Unit in Sheffield, he completed his first event as a para athlete – a 5K Parkrun in his wheelchair. “That was my way of showing the kids that I’m still me,” Tansley says. He went on to complete the Berlin Marathon in his chair and, following an unwavering dedication to his physiotherapy, is now able to walk with the aid of crutches.
Tansley’s latest feat was taking part in the Red Bull 400 in Planica, Slovenia – a gruelling 400m event that challenges competitors to race up a ski slope with 202m of altitude gain. There was a moment, halfway up, when Tansley thought he couldn’t reach the top. “This internal battle started,” he says. “That little voice saying, ‘You can’t do it, you need to stop.’ But I pushed through it. I would have crawled to the top if I had to – I wouldn’t let it beat me.”
This determination and resilience have underpinned every step of Tansley’s journey, whether reaching a 400m summit on a 37° incline or confounding the doctors who said his sporting life was over. And he’s not done yet…
Ben Tansley
