Background
Storey was born without a functioning left hand after her arm became entangled in the umbilical cord in the womb.
Storey was born without a functioning left hand after her arm became entangled in the umbilical cord in the womb.
Her total of eleven gold medals makes her the equal of Tanni Grey-Thompson and Dave Roberts, considered among the most successful British Paralympians. Storey (then known as Sarah Bailey) began her Paralympic career as a swimmer, winning two golds, three silvers and a bronze in Barcelona in 1992. She continued swimming in the next three Paralympic Games before switching to cycling in 2005.
She was also the second Paralympic athlete overall competing for England at the Games, following archer Danielle Brown earlier in Delhi.
In 2011, Storey competed for one of the three places in the Great Britain squad for the women"s team pursuit at the 2012 Olympic Games. Although she was in the winning team for the World Cup event in Cali, Colombia in December 2011, she was informed afterwards that she was being dropped from the team pursuit squad.
The team fielded squads in the 2014 and 2015 British road race seasons. Storey attempted to break the world hour record at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London on 28 February 2015.
She set a distance of 45.502 km, which was 563m short of Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel"s 2003 overall world record – however Storey"s distance did set a new world record in the C5 Paralympic cycling class as well as a new British record.
Storey was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1998 New Year.