Inspirational Stephens Still Has Unfinished Business

On his ninth birthday Nathan Stephens recklessly attempted to jump aboard a freight train slowly rattling through his neighbourhood in South Wales. A solitary moment of carelessness could not of been less forgiving, with the consequences of his actions changing the rest of his life.

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“I remember quite a lot of it,” Stephens recounts. “It was my birthday and I was down by the tracks with a couple of friends, my brother and my cousin. When we were all younger we always had this stupid fascination over anything with wheels, so we were all up near the tracks watching a slow freight train go by. As it was pulling in I decided to jump on to one of the ladders. My foot slipped and I got dragged under.”

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The prompt response from the emergency services was the thread from which Nathan’s life hung, whilst he drifted in and out of consciousness as the ambulance rapidly approached. Both his legs had been damaged beyond repair and were ultimately amputated.

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“Sure, I’ve got no legs,” he muses. “But I can still do anything that I put my heart to.”

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The truly inspirational nature of Nathan Stephens can be found rooted in the determination and resolve he garnered from the tragedy. Whilst he paid a terrible price for his misadventure, he is devoid of self-pity; his tale becomes a vehicle to warn others about the hazards of the overly inquisitive mind.

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“Fortunately, I knocked myself out so I didn’t see or feel any of the pain and one of my friends dragged me off the tracks and into a bush.”

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Stephens perversely considers himself ‘lucky’ in certain respects; the friction from the track seared many of the major arteries in his legs, limiting the blood loss he suffered to sub-fatal levels.

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“I woke up having no idea about what had happened,” he insists. “I tried to sit up and saw one of my brand new trainers on the track. We waited for the ambulance and they chucked me in the back of the van before airlifting me to hospital. I woke up two days later with tubes everywhere.”

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The flimsy barriers that guarded the railway weren’t enough to avert Stephens from the side of the tracks. Importantly, the accident had occurred at an age whereby he had enough opportunity to rebuild his life and forge a considerable career as an athlete.

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Whilst the tragic incident ultimately hampered his physical mobility, the same boisterous and determined character remained. Still unimpeded by barriers of any description, Stephens made his foray into athletics at 14, after being spotted lifting weights by his current coach and performance director Anthony Hughes. Within a couple of years, Stephens had become Junior British and World champion, breaking Junior World Records in the Javelin, Discus and Shot Put.

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“He [Hughes] said to me that one day he’d take me to the Paralympics in athletics, but at first you think nothing of it. After the first two years of competition I started to think that it could perhaps be true; I was ranked number one in Britain at 15 or 16 years old.

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“I went off to the World and European championships and realised that if I was finishing fifth in the world when most of the field are twice my age, who knows what could happen in the future? It was time to knuckle down.

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“When Athens came around in 2004, I just missed out on going but saw a couple of my training partners go off to it. I knew then that I wanted to get to there.”

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Two years ago, Stephens realised his dream by travelling East to the Beijing Paralympics, clinching a “bittersweet” fourth place in the javelin when many expected him to finish much further down the list.

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“In Beijing, the night before my event I was in tears on the phone to my coach, telling him that I wasn’t good enough to be there. He told me to shut up and go to sleep. I woke up raring to go, but my first three throws weren’t my best, so I put the pressure on myself. Nearing the end I was up to third and there was only one guy who could knock me back down into that fourth position and the blighter did it.”

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Stephens remained in third place in the F57/58 javelen until Czech thrower Rostislav Pohlmann surpassed the youngster’s 38.56m. After getting so bitterly close to a Paralympic medal, Stephens insists that it will be his “revenge to get him back at the World Championships”, targeting Pohlmann despite his current status as world number one.

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His opportunity for retribution materializes in just a week’s time, when Stephens joins the rest of the Aviva GB & NI team at the IPC World Athletics Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. More than 1,000 athletes will descend on QEII Park for the final major athletic gathering before paralympic sport arrives in London. Casting his mind further ahead, a characteristically rugged tenacity resonates in Stephens' voice as he contemplates the impending IPC World Championships and the London 2012 Paralympics as the perfect tonic.

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“I thought Beijing was special,” Stephens muses. “It’s going to be a totally different crowd. In Beijing, the crowd weren’t shouting for you, but shouting for the guy next to you. Now all the effort will be appreciated by those in the stadium, so it’s going to be a phenomenal experience.

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“If you speak to any serious athlete, they will tell you they are going for gold and it is exactly the same for me. I want to go out there and get a medal for Great Britain. If I go out there, do my best and still miss out on a medal, I won’t be ready to quit. There is unfinished business after Beijing and until I get that gold I won’t be happy.”

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Aviva has been paving the way for British athletes since 1999. To find out more about Aviva's athletics sponsorship, go to www.aviva.co.uk/athletics

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