souleymanbah-blog

[souleymanbah-blog]

Welcome!

My name is Souleyman and I would like to welcome you to my brand new website. For my first Blog post, I would like to introduce myself and tell my story up to where I currently am. Hopefully, through regular monthly Blog posts, you may also come along on my journey to complete world domination! I hope you enjoy this first one. Also feel free to contact me via the contact page if you have any enquires or questions about this post or if you have any suggestions for future posts.

Who am I?

Souleyman Bah is an, 18 year old, up and coming athlete for the Great Britain Paralympic Team. He specialises in sprinting and his main events include the 100 and 200 meters. He Suffers from a rare eye condition called RP, which renders him visually impaired and therefor qualifies for the T13 bracket of the Paralympic categories.

What are my achievements and Plans?  

Souleymans biggest achievement in the sport so far, was winning a gold medal in the 100 meters at the Paralympic School Games, which were held in Natal, Brazil in November 2015. Souleyman has high ambitions to represent his country at a senior international competition such as the European and/or World championships but his ultimate dream, goal and aspiration is to gain selection for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and also to hopefully win a medal. “I am on track to make it! I’ve recently been selected for the British Athletics Talent Development Squad as I show great promise for the future”.

What am I currently up to?

Souleyman is based in South West London and is currently in progress with his A Levels in which he is studying Philosophy, Politics and P.E. He says “I find it hard to balance time between my school work and a training schedule but it’s great practice for organisation and multi-tasking skills”. He is also a very active member of the community and does many speeches and presentations to local schools and organisations on the physical, mental and social benefits of sport and talks about how he believes that “Sport can cure two of the biggest problems we face in our society. Obesity and depression.”

Early Life:

It wasn’t an easy start in life for Souleyman. He was born on January 5th 1999 in the small West African country of Guinea (Conakry), due to political violence, overwhelming poverty and a lack of sufficient adjustments to suit his special educational needs, his mother made the decision to move in search of a better life and eventually claimed asylum in the UK. Being a 6 year old child in a new and strange environment, Souleyman initially found it very difficult to adjust to the sudden change in culture and language however he eventually settle in and made many great friends who he still maintains contact with to this day (including his first school teacher in the UK, Sue Hanning). His family always knew he had issues with his eyesight but weren’t able to diagnose it in Guinea due to a lack of medical resources. However, as soon as he settled into the UK he was quickly diagnosed with RP. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of genetic disorders that affect the retina’s ability to respond to light. This inherited disease causes a slow loss of vision, beginning with decreased night vision and loss of peripheral (side) vision. Eventually, resulting in total blindness. Unfortunately, there is no cure for RP at this moment in time. Learn More About RP (https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/what-is-retinitis-pigmentosa)

Finding His Passion

The realisation of Souleymans passion for running didn’t manifest in the most positive of ways as he describes it. “I always got into trouble for running round and I also ran away from trouble. I ran everywhere, to the shops, in the shops and even in the most forbidden place on earth; the school corridor.” He always had a natural gift for running fast and earned the nickname ‘Sonic Soul’. His passion flourished over his primary school years and always won the sports day sprint race despite being visually impaired. However it wasn’t until his year 7 sports day where he not only won the 100-meter race, but also broke the longstanding school record in 12.6 seconds, and his P.E teacher really urged him to pursued his passion and talent. Watch The Race Video Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEDdSOFlUKc)

Progression Period

During this time, there was a scheme called Playground To Podium which was a Government backed programme in the run up to the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games to help young and talented individuals find a sport and help them build a support structure to move forward. For Souleyman, he knew which sport he wanted to do, so they helped him find a club and coach to train with, and to also represent in competition. His first coach was Richard Holt who Souleyman got along very well with and they also found ways to adapt the training to suit Souleymans visual impairment so that he did not feel left out.

In his time at Kingston & Polytechnique Harriers, Souleyman and his coach worked on improving his speed, strength, skills and technique in his sport and in a short period of time, he was already representing his club in major national championships and racing against able-bodied athletes. His first big sporting achievement was in 2013 were he won the standing long jump and relay event at Sports-hall 2013 regional championships and gained selection to represent Surrey at the UK finals in Birmingham. After an amazing day of fierce competition against the best athletes in the UK, the Surrey team came 3rd. He says “i found it hard to see the step board during the sprint race and the 4x2 relay event, so i had to rely a lot on my hearing and memory of the course.” Sports-hall 2013 Finals Result (http://www.sportshall.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/UK_Final_Under_15_Boys.pdf)

Souleyman also won 2 gold medals at the 2015 London Youth Games Disabled competition in the 100 and 200 meters and was interviewd for his amazing achievement. Watch The Interview (https://www.facebook.com/londonyouthgames/videos/10153351290266382/) Later that year, he had some more amazing successes such as running under 12 seconds for the first time. With a PB (personal best) of 11.9 seconds, he was invited to compete at the Bedford International Games where he raced against Paralympic legends including Jonny Peacock. He also raced his long time hero Jason Smyth, the fastest Paralympian on the planet, and also got a chance to interview him and ask him some questions. Watch The Interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_VsrXvAUG8)

Visiting Guinea

After living in the UK for 11 years and finally completing his GCSE exams with 3 proud A*s, Souleyman and his family decided to visit their home country of Guinea to see how it has changed and most importantly visit their extended family who they had only maintained contact with via telephone. Souleyman says “I found it very surreal and emotional to be back in a place I vividly remember having so much joy and fun as a child to come back and see it all changed, removed and rebuilt. My three favourite moments of the trip was seeing my family and friends, visiting the hospital I was born in, visiting the room I was raised in and also traveling around the beautiful landscapes, mountains and beaches of Guinea.

However I also witnessed a lot of poverty, disease and hunger. I became emotionally overwhelmed when I encountered a blind man begging for money on the side of a busy and dangerous road. It suddenly hit me how lucky I am to have been blessed with the opportunity to live a normal life, with reasonable adjustments, to function like a normal member of society in the UK. It also hit me how powerful decisions can be in life and that if my mother hadn’t decided to move to the UK, the blind man I saw could have easily become my fate. From that moment I vowed, in the future, I will make a huge change in this country when I become successful enough to make an impact. That change could be political, industrial or simply social. One definite thing I would like to do is to build da boarding school for the blind where they can live, learn and grow in a safe and secure environment, as this is an opportunity I never had.

His Big Break

Upon returning to the UK and starting his A Level courses, Souleyman realised that both his education and his training commitments required full time attention and dedication and could not successfully get the results he would like in either when pursuing both at once. He was very close to quitting the sport and to finally knuckle down with his studies when he received a phone call from a British Athletics talent scout who said, “we would like you to represent Team GB at the Paralympic School Games in Brazil”.

Souleyman, very excitedly, accepted this opportunity and was also nominated and successfully became the team captain for the squad. Souleyman had a lot of media coverage before, during and after the weeklong event with Interviews on BBC News, BBC Radio London and various local and national newspapers like the Evening Standard. As he puts it, “We went, we saw and we conquered.” The entire squad, including Souleyman, won a gold medal in their event, some even winning 2 or 3 as multi-event athletes. Souleyman says, “when I crossed the line, winning the race in 11.87 seconds, I could not believe it. It only became real to me when I was awarded my gold medal on the podium.” Read Moe About The Paralympic School Games (http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/media/news/2015-news-page/november-2015/26-11-15-para-school-games/)

It was at this point that I realised i had found my purpose, passion and calling. To run. To win. But most importantly, to inspire other people in similar circumstances like me through my sporting achievements. I used to see my disability as a problem, now i see it as a solution. A way to give other people hope that they too can achieve their dreams, goals and ambitions despite their struggles. “When you see less and less of the faces of the people you love, you worry about one day going blind. But when your vision for the future is bigger and clearer than what you see around you, sight becomes a distraction. Because what you see is what you see, and what you don’t see is where the magic begins.”

Souleyman Bah