Dan Pembroke on his Tokyo 2020 Paralympic experiences | Neuff Athletic Interview

Intro [Music] so we're here today talking with dan pembroke and recently come back from tokyo from the paralympics where he won an absolutely phenomenal gold and with a paralympic record of 69.52 um which was even more impressive because it was in horrendous rain torrential weather conditions so um i bet dan you must be really super pleased about that and it also was three meters more than your um european championships best um and um yeah also it brings you right up in the overall rankings never mind for the para categories but you're right up there in the overall ranking so huge achievement so we're really tough to be able to speak to dan um so dan is a para athlete um he competes in the f-13 category which is a visually impaired category and has retinitis pigmentosa hopefully i said that right um and How was Tokyo 2020 so dan previously you competed in um able-bodied games um a few years back and then suffered an injury so he didn't make it to the olympics and then with deteriorating eyesight and your injury you took a quite a substantial break and only recently come back um into the sport so just tell us like how are you um how were the paralympics how was tokyo what's it like being back in the sport after such a break um yeah we'd love to hear from you yeah so i mean like like you said um i come back into the sport quite fresh from that large break and i've done a lot within that large break but we'll get into that later um but yeah going to go into the paralympic games in tokyo was just a phenomenal experience for me i mean it's the first time at my first games biggest competition i've ever been to even though there weren't any crowds there the actual stadium itself and and the japanese people the the volunteers just made everything so smooth and so supportive and uh when i got into that stadium and i you know just looked up into the night sky just saw the darkness and then all these lights shining down onto where you're competing and uh just that alone just makes your heart just like beat a hundred times faster um and then that really kind of revved me up for the competition and um yeah on that third throw came down it was almost swimming in the rain but um i managed to come down plant that left leg and uh unleash a massive throw and that got me the paralympic record 69 52 so uh yeah i'm ecstatic about that yeah quite rightly Whats your enduring memory absolutely brilliant achievement so um and what so what's your enduring memory gonna be is it is it of that throw or is it sort of a broader memory of the games um i think obviously the performance side of things um you know it's great to be throwing around that 70 meter mark again like i did back when i was in my able-bodied career um so pre-2013 um but also i think the paralympics carries another message and that is to inspire other generations and other people coming into the sport with the same condition as i have or you know through any other condition or disability you know to achieve something in sport is a it's a really meaningful thing and it brings a lot of good feelings to yourself and uh into your self-esteem so what's it like Whats it like doing sport now doing sport now um compared to when you were competing in the able-bodied categories well i don't mean just in competition i mean just for you and your life and how that's impacted you and what it brings you yeah um so i was diagnosed with rp retinitis pigmentosa when i was the age of six and at the age of six my eyesight was pretty much as good as anybody else's eyesight um but the condition slowly worsens and it gets worse and worse and worse and it constricts my vision so my vision gets um kind of nearly every year it gets a little bit narrower and narrower okay it's called tunnel vision so back in 2012 and and prior prior to that i was just starting to see the differences in my eyesight um but you know and i was able to see the conditions around me and i just had a little bit of um difficulty difficulty seeing at night but um in my little break away from athletics post and 2012 um i went traveling around the world and um you know to make the most of my usable eyesight um but then you know it got to the stage where my eyesight was a little bit too bad and i then returned back to the uk to try and pick up uh javelin throwing again and i noticed some differences actually when i was training then because when i was running down the runway i'm looking forward but because my constricted vision i can no longer now see the line so i'm not sure how close i am to the line so that was one difficulty that i had to overcome and i'd done that by actually counting my steps when i run so i actually do nine forward steps and seven crossovers and um you do lots of patterning in your training prior to a competition to make sure that those numbers are correct to when you're in a competition obviously you move you move the distance to the run runway um back uh depending on how big the competition is so this has been my longest run up because obviously when you're you're really into um into the uh competition your adrenaline is higher you're running faster and uh so you just need that a little bit extra room Adapting to RP let's see there's like tiny little practical things that are actually huge impact and a massive importance um that then you need to work with in addition to the standards of javelin throwing and you know that technique that every athlete would have to to do yeah i mean it's also you know with with rp because the condition is always evolving you have to always evolve and adapt uh to the things that you're doing something that i would have been able to do two years ago now i have to do slightly different or i have to use a torch or you know i kind of shuffle my feet along the floor in dark sort of situations to just make sure i'm not tripping over anything so this you know you're constantly adapting and um you know when i walk into a room i can't see the whole room in its entirety so as soon as i go in there my eyes are scanning the whole room my brain remembers where everything is so um and you do all this subconsciously you know because it's a slowly um deteriorating um condition so you learn to adapt very well and it becomes a skill that you you learn just inherited by the condition Does sport make life harder and one that we could probably all benefit from to be honest for different reasons in our lives i guess so in some ways like a life skill too so does sport make life harder because it's something else that you've got to adapt and navigate and work at or does it make life easier because it gives you that freedom and focus and well it's a double-edged sword really because you you are on one side being incredibly dedicated everything is you know going into that performance to try and throw the implement as far as possible and so there's a lot of time dedication sacrifices made just like any other athlete but i think because it's so meaningful for for myself you know that being on that um runway and throwing your best and and achieving your best gives you a great satisfaction so that's you know that's that's great you know i love doing that and uh i think the payoff is is more than worth it What role did sport have in his life yeah so and how was that when you were a kid growing up how what what role did sport and um training have in your life yeah i mean i didn't know it at the time but i mean i i wasn't very good at any other sport i wasn't good at team sports literally because i couldn't like say rugby for example you know the player your players on your side so as soon as i got given the ball i would just run forwards and didn't know where the rest of my teammates were so it was like all or nothing so i think i was definitely built for an individual sport and then in pe in school um we had like a an athletics tryout day so we tried all different events and i picked up the javelin and yeah i was pretty good at it and i was like third best in the school just in that one day and uh i really kind of wanted to kind of pursue it because it was the first sport that i was any good at and so i just went to a club which was um windsor slow eater and hounsler athletics club in thames valley and um yeah i i just literally started wanting to throw things a long way and uh with the help of ashley fox who was the the coach there um you know he's really great to get you and get me into the sport it was fantastic and then uh my dad um kind of took the reins and uh he was a javelin thrower in school so he already knew a little bit and um yeah my dad literally went total professor on the whole thing and uh he studied so hard it was like he was in university almost and uh yeah he spent literally every working hour of the day um yeah trying to make me a better thrower and uh you know if it wasn't for him i wouldn't be here today but i think like i get back to the question what does my condition do for me um back then was uh basically i didn't have too many symptoms in my sort of early teens they were very very slight symptoms so i got into athletics and just started that and i was very active so my body was healthy i was eating healthy and normally with this condition like the less active you are and the more unhealthy things you do the quicker your eyesight deteriorates and when i at the time of my diagnosis at the age of six they told my mum and dad that at the age of you know 25 30 that your son may be totally blind and uh here i am today and i'm in the f-13 category of parasport which is the least visually affected athlete um and you know i'm totally functionable by learning to adapt um to my surroundings and it's about having a positive mindset to be able to let yourself adapt and not just give up when you um you know get a hurdle and i think that's what sport has done to me because when you start training obviously you hit those barriers all the time every time you go training and you train your body to work through them and it's not just your physical body that's working through them it's your mental ability so i think again subconsciously i've transferred that kind of mindset onto my disability or my ability yeah Advice to others so i mean that sounds like awesome advice for you know like a young person or a parent or even an adult that sort of suddenly had something happen um that is similar to you of of sort of how you adapt and use your abilities in order to you know thrive and flourish in in your life and in what you've been given to you um i mean is there anything else that you would say to someone who is in that kind of condition or situation i think you know life is tough and life is tough for everyone um you know and some people get it worse than others but again that that adaptation kind of aspect is is what's most important and and the kind of i mean if something bad happens to you obviously you're going to feel upset and it's important to take that time to absorb that negative thing but also then kind of have the cognitive ability to say right okay well this has happened um do i want to feel like this for a long time or do i want to start doing something that's going to make me feel better and okay that's very easy for me to say um but i think actually just thinking it through in your mind you know you have the the ability to change your life right now by doing something positive just one thing that one thing will maybe inspire you to do another positive thing so then you have two positive things so you have a lot more positive things in your life and all of a sudden it starts to spiral upwards okay and then you you attract positive people positive situations and positive opportunities and i think that's kind of how i live my life and i've found it to be very very good especially when i was traveling around the world i got to do some incredible things just being in the right place at the right time and kind of uh yeah that positive aspect of um being in that mindset got me in those situations so it sounds sounds corny just but just being positive Talking about disability yeah no and you know what it's it's actually so simple but then some of the most impactful things in life are simple um yeah it's basic stuff yeah but it works right yeah evidently because you're standing there sitting there having achieved what you've achieved so clearly it does work very well so yeah i know that that's really cool um so you're quite open about this as well so because some people find it hard to talk about disability whether that's because they're um affected themselves um and you know maybe awkward about that or people that have no experience of disability either themselves or in their family and friends and then feel awkward about you know how they're supposed to tackle it what they're supposed to think how they're supposed to react what's your thoughts about that yeah well through through my teenage years um as i was sort of coming to terms with with my condition i used to kind of hide my condition and didn't really tell anyone about it and then as the condition worse obviously i was adapting the way that i was doing things and things like that but obviously these adapter adaptations over years become things that are normal for you but not necessarily normal in society you know you know when i go into a room and there's full of people like i have to look everywhere around right and um i'm like looking for people that are coming up to me to to shake my hand or you know to say hello it's very hard for me to read somebody's body language so like for instance somebody would come up to me who i've never never met before or maybe i've met them before and they come up to me and say hey how are you doing dan and they put their hand out shake shake my hand and i'm looking at them yeah not too bad and i've totally just left them hanging and and this just happened a lot and now it doesn't happen so much because i'm more open to people about what i can and can't see so the people that do know me um they know that you know i'm not going to be able to see their hands so they just sort of like put it out into like my field of vision and say dan i'm shaking your hand or you know they sort of grab my hand first so i think actually being very open about your condition is is the first key to moving on and uh not being embarrassed about your condition because i mean let's face it most of us are going to want to help each other so if you if you there and you'll say i've got a visual impairment and somebody says oh you know that's ridiculous you know what you want about or you know starts to discriminate you this person is really not worth it so they're not even worried no point worrying about that person you know they're a bad person they just get on with it and um you know the people that are going to kind of accept the way you are i'm just gonna accept that and be and bring your friend uh because of that i don't know where i was going without to be honest but effectively the Dealing with awkwardness you know the more open that we can all be about it and i suppose if so so if i were to come up to you and and not know anything about your condition then then i could also be open and sort of acknowledge acknowledge that there's a difference there and then just get on with it rather than sort of stepping around it or you know feeling awkward it can come off a bit weird just imagine this right so if you go up to shake my hand and uh you don't say anything i don't say anything you leave with an impression of me as this person's rude you know yeah whereas you know if you you kind of say um right uh sorry if i don't shake your hand or anything like that or maybe you initiate the handshake first you know so if you if you're meeting somebody you put your hand out first so there's not that kind of awkwardness so they they just have to grab it yeah exactly and then it's a choice to leave you hanging a lot unless you meet someone else with with with them with rp as well and then then you're back we'd just be there just like hovering yeah and i think that brings on to the second point you've got kind of have a laugh with it you know what i mean because it's not a great thing that you've been given you know the ability not to be able to see totally fully but um you know if you can have to laugh about it a little bit and laugh about yourself i think you'll make the whole journey a lot smoother and also make other people around you more comfortable to be able to ask you questions and if you're if you're very serious about things then yeah people are not going to be as open and like we say you know if you give that vulnerability about yourself and you talk about your condition it opens other people's minds as well you know they they will open themselves up to you and that's where good friendship friendships are made so yeah that's the advice that i'll give i love it i think that really works for me yeah it's really cool definitely Training um okay so going back to javelin um so you talked about your experiences at school and how your dad really helped you and you know so now you're back in your training after having had your break traveling and so what is it what do sessions look like for you what is your training week look like what's your absolute you know smash it session that you come away buzzing from and you know what's that like well the buzzing sessions haven't happened quite yet because like i say i'm new into the sport so after every session i come away feeling absolutely awful um but yeah i mean you know it's been a quite steep um curve coming into athletics again and i'm 30 now so you know i'm not the sort of 20 year old athlete i used to be my brain still thinks i am but and i try and train as hard as i used to when i was 20 years old but um it does need that bigger recovery and that bit more of attention to um technique making sure i'm not getting injured um at the moment i train six days a week um like twice a day i have my sundays off and so yeah literally i'm in the winter it's a lot of conditioning um [Music] sessions so a lot of long slow duration training like running um [Music] high reps of low weight and then towards the end of the the winter coming in towards the season then i'll increase my weight training get more strength behind me a bit more mass and then into competition phase then i'll be lifting heavy weight um you know just maybe one or two reps um maximum intent and um yeah getting a bit more speed into my uh training but with that i also do a lot of conditioning so um a lot of boring sort of physio exercises that we all know but and hate to do but are very good for us um so i do a lot of that especially now i'm a bit more of a mature athlete i need to make sure that all those little muscles these little connective muscles that i'm using when i'm throwing to stabilize my body to make sure that they're all strong as they can be and when i come down to plant that left leg to throw i don't break things so it's it's about building the building and making it as strong as possible [Music]