Lee Pearson Wiki – Lee Pearson Biography
Sir Lee Pearson CBE is a 12-time gold medalist at the Paralympic Games and has represented the British para-equestrian in Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo. Throughout his career he has won 30 gold medals at the European, world and Paralympic levels.
Pearson was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita and first came to the public’s attention in 1980 when British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took him upstairs at 10 Downing Street and awarded him a ‘Children of Courage‘ medal.
Pearson turned professional after he was inspired by the Atlanta Olympics. He won three gold medals in the dressage, free dressage and team dressage championships at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Paralympic Games. He won gold in the team dressage event at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games. silver in the dressage championship and bronze in freestyle.
After failing to win gold in the freestyle competition in London, he noted that the British judge had rejected him, but said that he would compete in the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio, on a different horse. Pearson received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Staffordshire in July 2005.
Named a Fellow of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2001 New Years honors for services to sports for the disabled, Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2005 New Years honors for services to equestrian already disabled. sport, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in New Years Honors 2009 for his services to horsemanship and sport for the disabled. He was knighted in the 2017 New Years Honors for his services to riding.
Lee Pearson Age
Sir Lee Pearson is 47 years old.
Pearson sends message of LGBTQ + support after gold
Love has to prevail, really. Whatever the shape or form, I believe that love must prevail. If you were born with a disability, if you have a son with a disability, if you were born with same-sex attraction, if your daughter or son comes out of the closet, then love them. Nobody wants to be different, but we have to hug different people because that is society, that is the world.
Those different people are not going anywhere. So you can say it’s illegal, you can make them feel bad, but somewhere in the world another gay boy or girl will be born. Somewhere in the world, someone will be born without limbs. You know what I mean? Life goes on and it’s silly in this age when we have countries that are still in the stone age, as we say, 100 years ago. But I’m just a rider. Promise.”
Some rider. On Thursday Sir Lee Pearson achieved a comprehensive triumph in the Grade II individual dressage event, winning the 12th Paralympic gold medal of his career. He did it on the back of a new partner, Breezer (son of Bacardi), and ahead of his great Austrian rival, Pepo Puch. In the sweltering heat of the Tokyo afternoon, with the weather warning dropping just below the level that local organizers call “danger,” Pearson and Breezer, well, they went home.
Born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita causing muscle weakness and joint contracture, this 47-year-old from Cheddleton, Staffordshire, is the preeminent equestrian athlete in the history of Paralympic sport. By the end of this year’s Games, and Pearson has competed in both team dressage and individual freestyle, he could have more gold medals on his own than Germany and the US (the second and third most successful country in Paralympic equestrian sport) make between them.
That he is more than that, an icon of disabled sport, as well as a confident openly gay athlete who performs before a global audience and has been out for decades, makes the man unique.
He is also just a rider. Before a young Japanese reporter asked him about his feelings about Tom Daley’s moment at the Olympics that he wanted a message to send to Japan’s LGBTQ community, and to deliver the eloquent and inspiring message that he did, Pearson was just speaking. by Breezer. Breezer, a nine-year-old bay, was raised by Pearson in his own stables. As he says himself, the gelding grew up “hacking Stoke-on-Trent.”
But Breezer is a sensitive horse, one that can be affected by unexpected lights and sounds – things that humans can’t even detect. Something had caused Breezer to react badly in the last event before leaving England and Pearson had worried about him.
“To say that he has been with me since he had hours in Staffordshire makes this very special, but also because he is not a fool,” Pearson said. “He is very sensitive to environments and completing that test, which in my last selection test I did not complete, added to the excitement. You walk in there [to the dressage arena] and you think an insect or a buzzing microphone or a waving flag might scare him away. People don’t realize how much you try to eliminate that.
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“The piracy trail is back here, so I’ve been walking it back and forth so you can hear the flags on that side of the arena. We don’t just jump in and ride on the feeling without trying to eliminate any negativity, both so that we can have good rides and to prevent an accident. And also for our sport, because none of us wants to have too many accidents ”.
That day, that care and attention seemed to have visible results. After Georgia Wilson, a late addition to the ParalympicsGB team who eventually won bronze, put herself at an early lead, Puch executed all 20 fixed components of the individual event in a controlled manner that suggested that he, the current world number one , would be the favorite to find the last advantage in their rivalry.
But when Pearson and Breezer entered the rectangle, lined with plants and three small wooden huts, the energy was suddenly different from anything that had happened before. Breezer bounced through all of his drills almost as if he was on point. He looked like she was having fun, almost showing off, and the screen broadcasting the judges’ scores posted better technical performance on every measure, often by several percentage points.
“It was smooth, harmonious, but also as powerful as can be done,” Pearson said. “Some cyclists cannot rise to power. I am fortunate that although my walking disability is very obvious when I am in the saddle I have a bright feeling and flexibility in my lower back. My lower back in slow motion absorbs the movement with the saddle. You should never move in the saddle, you should move with the saddle and the saddle connects you with the horse’s back, so you want to feel freedom and athleticism and that [the horse] wants to be led. That said, we jogged there a bit, and I’ll talk about that at the stables. ”
Pearson is the life and soul of the ParalympicsGB party and according to himself, he may have a sense of humor that is too much for some. But he also insists that he is the “most abnormal normal person” there is. “I am not very political,” he said. “I have made a change just by being. Obviously just being has made you realize my disability and my sexuality. There are very important people who chain themselves to doors and fight for rights and I would not be here. if these people hadn’t fought. But I think just being … will help other people to be as well. ”