Richard Lamb Athlete Profile

After completing a very good impression of a tobogan in a sack, after falling c.700 ft down a winter mountaineering route in February 2001, I set about rebooting my life. Sustaining a few challenging injuries as a result, which included loosing most of my fingers to 3rd degree frost-bite, an amputated left leg (beneath the knee), and shattered and dislocated left ankle (now thankfully healed, and pretty usable despite the odd twinge when the weather changes), I didn’t discover target shooting as a sport until October 2008. Up to that time I’d injected most of my time and effort into retraining for a new career in IT, then gaining the experience. I was still reasonably 'sporty active’ despite the injuries, as I’d maintained the attitude that if I wanted to live a long, active and purposeful life, I’d best keep my body in good shape! Comes in very handy for lowering your resting heart-rate on the firing line too :)

I received an heads-up from friend who worked at the Limbless Association, suggested that I attend one of the Talent ID days ParalympicsGB were organising aroung the UK in 2008. So just after Team GB’s successes in Beijing I fancied 'having a go’. Despite riding from Land’s End to Jon O’Groats for the Douglas Bader Foundation in the summer of 2005, I didn’t cut it as a potential paralympic cyclist. The last discipline of the day I visited was precision target shooting. I was aware that Matt Skelhon had returned with a gold medal. Matt was with the head performance coach, Pasan Kularatne, helping potential shooters with setting up their air rifles for the assessment shots. I was right-handed before the frost-bite claimed all the fingers and most of the thumb on that hand; I’d learned how to write again with my left hand…and use chop-sticks, so I reckoned I could make a good accounting of myself! On the strength of the 3 5-shot groups, Pasan invited me to come to the GB disabled shooters’ ranges at Stoke Mandeville…and haven’t looked back since. I was accepted onto the squad at Talent level in Feb-March 2010.

My peak achievement so far is making the final on my first international tournament – I’m certain there will be others with a medal :)