Meggan Dawson-Farrell

Wheelchair curler Meggan Dawson-Farrell is no stranger to competing on the international sporting stage.

But the Scottish star, who will compete at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games, first made her name in a very different sport.

Eight years ago, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she represented Scotland as a wheelchair racer.

Now, in 2022, she has finally secured her place as a Paralympic athlete – but Dawson-Farrell will take to the ice, not the racetrack, in pursuit of sporting glory this time around.

The 29-year-old made the decision to switch sports following her seventh-place finish in the T54 1,500m at Hampden Park in 2014.

Dawson-Farrell suffered a pressure sore in her leg after the Games that took her out of action for five months, triggering her decision to give wheelchair curling a go as she recovered in 2017.

She is one of over 1,000 athletes able to train full-time, access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support thanks to vital National Lottery funding.

Dawson-Farrell said: “It’s incredible and I can’t wait to get out there now and compete.

“Going through school, I had nothing sport-related, and it wasn’t until later on in life I found athletics. I absolutely loved it, had a passion for it, trained 24/7 and managed to get to Glasgow 2014.

“But after my pressure sore took me out of action for five months, I started to lose myself a little bit and needed something else to focus on while I was still in recovery.

“I went along to curling, tried it out for the first time ever and fell in love. I haven’t looked back since. At first, I was doing a bit of both, but then eventually decided it was too difficult to do the two.

Since National Lottery funding to elite sport started in 1997, over 1,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals have been won, with more to come in Beijing 2022, Paris 2024 and beyond.