Nikki Emerson competing for Great Britain, in the 2018 London Marathon Elite Wheelchair race. Nikki went on to finished 16th in a time of
Nikki is a wheelchair racer who competed in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and marathon at international level until 2013. She now races for fun alongside working in the Commercial team for a Premier League football club. In 2008 Nikki was driving back from Oxford University, where she was studying neuroscience and psychology, when she had a near-fatal car crash. The car flipped over and her seat slammed her into the steering wheel. It took three hours for the fire brigade to cut her free, during which time she lost feeling in her legs due to breaking her spine at T10 level with the bottom of her ribs. Nikki spent 10 weeks at Stoke Mandeville National Spinal Injuries Centre undergoing intensive physiotherapy and hydrotherapy. She was told she’d never walk again and had to adapt to life in a wheelchair. During this time in hospital she watched the Beijing Paralympics was inspired to take up Paralympic sport by the athletes she saw on screen. She now competes against these athletes internationally and still gets star struck occasionally! After a long break from wheelchair racing, Nikki’s friends finally persuaded her to take up athletics again. She won gold at Silverstone in 2016, silver at the Paris Marathon in 2016 and 2017 and bronze at the Dubai Marathon last month. The impressive return led to a call-up for the Commonwealth Games in She also competed in the 2018 London Marathon
Size: 4710px × 3158px
Location: Cabot Square, London, UK
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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