Stephen Miller (athlete)

Stephen Miller
Full name	Stephen James Miller
nation	United Kingdom
birthday	May 27, 1980
place of birth	Newcastle upon Tyne
Career
discipline	Club throw , discus throw
Trainer	Rosalynd Miller
status	active
Medal table
Paralympic Games gold 1996 Atlanta Club throw gold 2000 Sydney Club throw bronze 2000 Sydney discus gold 2004 Athens Club throw silver 2008 Beijing Club throw bronze 2016 Rio de Janeiro Club throw World Championships for the Disabled gold 1998 Birmingham Club throw gold 2002 Lille Club throw silver 2002 Lille discus gold 2006 Assen Club throw bronze 2011 Christchurch Club throw bronze 2017 London Club throw European Championships for the Disabled gold 2003 Assen Club throw gold 2003 Assen discus gold 2005 Espoo Club throw gold 2012 Stadskanaal Club throw silver 2014 Swansea Club throw bronze 2016 Grosseto Club throw silver 2018 Berlin Club throw
last change: October 27, 2019

Stephen James Miller (born May 27, 1980 in Newcastle upon Tyne ) is a British athlete in disabled sports . For more than a decade and a half he was considered to be the world's dominant athlete in club throwing - the disabled sport equivalent to hammer throwing .

Miller was born with infantile cerebral palsy and is therefore in classification group F32 (F = en. For field ).

Personal

He first attended the Percy Hedley School in his hometown, which is specially geared towards disabled students. At the age of nine he moved to the regular Southlands Middle School in nearby Cramlington and later to the Blyth Ridley High School in Blyth . There he passed his General Certificate of Secondary Education and his Advanced Level . He then enrolled for a degree in business informatics at Northumbria University , graduating in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science with a 2: 1 degree (second-class honors, upper division).

Miller still lives in Cramlington , Northumberland , and works part time as a web developer for Queen Elizabeth Hospital Gateshead . He is also a speaker, writer, and Secretary General of the Newcastle United Disabled Supporters Association . In November 2013 he founded the community interest company SMILE Through Sport (SMILE = Stephen Miller Inspiring Learning and Enjoyment), of which he is the managing director. The initiative is aimed primarily at children and young people, clubs, schools, municipalities and other providers, and offers, among other things, training, advice, workshops and help with inclusion . Miller is a fan of Newcastle United , has Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan as his closest friends and was given a good luck jersey by then Newcastle coach Alan Pardew before the 2012 Paralympic Games . Miller had been dependent on a wheelchair since he was thirteen , and in spring 2013 he relearned how to walk independently.

In 2005 he met Rachel Toland (* 1983 or 1984). The couple got engaged in 2010 and married in August 2013.

Athletic career

Miller cites the victory of his compatriot Linford Christie in the 100-meter run at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona as the initial spark for his athletic career and his desire for Olympic success . This experience inspired him and brought him into contact with the ideals of the Olympic movement.

Miller was one of the world's elite in his sport as a teenager. At the 1996 Paralympic Summer Games in Atlanta , he secured the club throwing title for the first time with a world record distance and more than three meters ahead of the runner-up. He became the youngest Briton ever to win an Olympic gold medal. He then remained unbeaten in this discipline until 2005 in all competitions he competed in. He held the world record until 2008 and improved it several times himself.

In the following years, Miller was his Paralympic title in 2000 in Sydney and 2004 in Athens defend, 2008 in Beijing , he had to but with silver satisfied. In addition, he was world and three times European champion. He also competed in discus throwing with varying degrees of success and was able to record a gold medal at the 2003 European Championships.

In the run-up to the 2012 Paralympic Summer Games in his own country, Miller was considered a great hope for a medal and was named team captain of the 294 athlete British team. Due to a hip joint injury , however, he was unable to build on previous performances and fell short of expectations: In the club throw, his first three throws were not enough for the final and he finished the competition in eleventh place. He did not take part in the discus throw. After the Games, he underwent an operation in October 2012 that included an artificial hip joint . As a result, the British Athletics Association UK Athletics (UKA) cut him all funding in November of the same year, as he was no longer seen as a hope for a medal. Participation in the World Championships in 2013 in the French Lyon came because of the ongoing rehabilitation process out of the question; In August 2014, however, Miller was able to secure the silver medal in the club throw at the European Championships in Swansea . On the other hand, his participation in the World Championships in Doha , the capital of Qatar, was less successful in October 2015 . A best distance of 29.65 meters was only enough for fourth place.

In addition to the successes in the three "big" competitions, Miller also collected medals at other events, for example the Cerebral Palsy World Games and the Cerebral Palsy European Athletics Championships .

Awards

• 1996: Cerebral Palsy Sport England & Wales Athlete of the Year
• 1997: Northern Rock North East Special Achievement Award
• 2000: Cerebral Palsy Sport England & Wales Athlete of the Year
• 2000: Northern Rock North East Disabled Sports Personality of the Year
• 2000: Sport Aid Special Achievement Award
• 2000: Gateshead Harriers Athletics Club Life Membership
• 2001: Chronicle Young Achievers Sports Award
• 2003: Npower Disabled Sportsman of the Year
• 2003: Cerebral Palsy Sport Athlete of the Year
• 2003: North East Disabled Sports Personality of the Year
• 2004: Npower Services to Disabled Sport Award
• 2004: Chronicle Young Sports Achiever of the Year
• 2004: Sport Aid North East Sports Personality of the Year
• 2004: Cerebral Palsy Sport Athlete of the Year
• 2005: Sport Aid Northern Personality of the Year
• 2005: Sports Newcastle Frank Brennan Trophy
• 2005: Npower Disabled Sportsman of the Year
• 2005: Duke of Edinborough Gold award
• 2005: Freedom of Blyth Valley Borough
• 2006: Sport Newcastle Sports Personality of the Year
• 2006: North East Disabled Sports Personality of the Year
• 2008: Honorary Doctorate in Public Law from Northumbria University
• 2013: Freedom of Gateshead

Publications

• Miller: Paralympian. My autobiography. Tonto Books, Newcastle upon Tyne 2008, ISBN 978-0-955-63261-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Profile of Miller on the homepage of the agency PJS Speakers . Retrieved from motivational-paralympians.co.uk on August 23, 2015.
2. ^ ^{A b} Katie Davies: "Paralympian Stephen Miller takes first steps to a new life" . April 11, 2013 on chroniclelive.co.uk ( The Chronicle ). Retrieved August 23, 2015.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Helen Rae, Michael Brown: "Paralympic hero Stephen Miller is set to walk his bride up wedding aisle" . On August 24, 2013 on chroniclelive.co.uk ( The Chronicle ). Retrieved August 23, 2015.
4. ↑ www.stephenjamesmiller.co.uk - Stephen Miller's official homepage . Retrieved August 23, 2015.
5. ^ "Another gold for Miller" . On July 12, 2005 on bbc.co.uk ( BBC ). Retrieved August 23, 2015.