A TEAM GB para athlete is looking to further raise the profile of two disability sports in 2023 as she returns as Worcester Wolves professional women’s team captain this season.
Later this month, Sarah Hope will be heading out to Canada to compete in the London Blizzard sledge hockey invitational tournament in Ontario before returning to play for Worcester Wolves in their first women’s wheelchair basketball Premier League game against Loughborough Lightning.
Last season marked the launch of the Premier League, the first professional disability sports competition in the UK, with Sarah leading the Wolves to third place.
And she followed up her achievement by captaining GB women’s para ice hockey programme in the sport’s first formal International Paralympic Committee female tournament.
Sarah said: “I’ve been around basketball for a while now but to captain a Women’s Premier League team was just something really different and exciting, and I’m proud of how far the GB women’s para ice hockey team has come in such a short time.
“I don’t think I’m too biased when I say the Wolves were the most improved team last season so we need to continue to gel and grow as a team, which should then translate into more wins on court.”
Sarah added she hopes the success of the Women’s Premier League as well as the GB para ice hockey programme will help raise the profile of disability sport.
“Wheelchair basketball just needs to be seen as a sport in its own right, and not a disabled version of basketball which only happens every four years at the Paralympics,” she explained.
“We already have a lot of support from the Wolves family and we’ll be doing more work out in the community this year, which will show people that you don’t need to be disabled to watch and appreciate disability sports.”
The London Blizzard sledge hockey event takes place on January 21-22.
The Wolves opening BWB Women’s Premier League game takes place away to Loughborough on January 29 and their first home game at the University of Worcester Arena in Hylton Road will be against East London Phoenix on February 26.