Meet Our New Trustees - Robert Barrett

Robert Barrett

Born on 29th July 1957, Robert Barrett has an incredibly inspirational story to tell.

Whilst serving with the Royal Navy, Robert unfortunately lost his left leg, below the knee. But, this didn’t didn’t stop his incredible sporting journey!

Primarily, Robert competed in athletics, participating in the Men's 100m and 200m at the Seoul 1988 Paralympic Games, as well as the Men’s 4x100m and Pentathlon at the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games. In National and European events, he also participated in the Discus, Shotput, and Javelin.

Following this, Robert then went onto retiring from competing full time, however still kept a keen interest in sport, and played for 3 separate rugby teams, as well as briefly coaching the Welsh National Track Squad. Robert also decided to take up Snowboarding, which then lead to him working with the American Wounded Warrior programme in 2005/2006. This eventually culminating in him being the first GB snowboarder to attend and compete at the 2012 WSF Para-Snowboard World Championships.

In more recent years, Robert has assisted with the East London Lynx Volleyball Club, as well as being a part of the squad for GB Sitting Volleyball, for London 2012.

In Robert’s own words…

“I'm privileged to have been involved in sport for so long and to have met so many wonderful people and had so many fantastic experiences, I hope they will continue. The most profound thing for me is that if someone were to say if we could give you your life back the way it was before you lost your leg but you would lose everything you have experienced since then. I would have to say “No thank you””

To find out more about Robert, head to the below links…

Robert Barrett | National Paralympic Heritage Trust

Robbie Barrett – Passing the Flame

Robert Barrett (athlete) - Wikipedia

Big-Name British Athletes to Attend Paralympian Reunion (paralympic.org)

Welcome to the team, Robert!