Isabel Newstead

Background

Isabel Barr was born in Glasgow, Scotland.

Career

She was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. At the age of nineteen her spinal cord was damaged by a flu virus, which would eventually lead to Tetraplegia, partial or complete paralysis of all four limbs. Newstead had already competed at regional level before her illness and as part of her rehabillitation continued swimming.

Whilst swimming with the Portuguese Glasgow Otters Swimming Club she was noticed by the British paraplegic swimming team

Newstead moved to Harlow, Essex in the late seventies to work as a systems analyst with Rank Hovis McDougall. Newstead did not compete in the swimming events at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul due to health challenges.

In Barcelona, an error by her coach led to her missing the final of one event, when she was in the lead after the preliminary rounds. In Atlanta, on the eve of the opening ceremony, Newstead fell from her wheelchair and required surgery on a broken hip.

Undeterred, she completed her event but finished outside the medals.

At the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Newstead won Gold in the air pistol SH1 category. In 2006 Newstead was diagnosed with cancer and died in January 2007.

Achievements

• Overall, Newstead won ten gold, four silver and four bronze medals in three different sports. At her first 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem, Newstead won three gold medals in the swimming pool. At the 1984 Summer Paralympics in Stoke Mandeville she won three golds and a silver medal in the pool. Most notably, Newstead also won a gold in the air pistol shooting event as well as silver medals in the shot put and discus events. However, she did win a silver medal in the shot put and two bronzes in the air pistol and javelin events. Newstead competed at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, though she did not win any medals.

Views

She defended her title four years later at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, setting a world-record score. She was in the process of training to defend her shooting title in Beijing and learning Mandarin.

Membership

In The New Year Honours 2001 Newstead was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to Disabled Sport.