Sarah Storey

"Sarah Bailey" redirects here. For the British-born American elocutionist, see Sarah Lord Bailey. For the referee, see Sarah Thomas (American football official). For the radio DJ, see Sarah Story.

Dame Sarah Joanne Storey (née Bailey; born 26 October 1977) is a British cyclist and swimmer, a multiple gold medallist in the Paralympic Games, and six times British (able-bodied) national track champion (2 × Pursuit, 1 × Points, 3 × Team Pursuit).

Dame
Sarah Storey
DBE

Storey in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Sarah Storey
Born	(1977-10-26) 26 October 1977 (age 47) Manchester, England[1]
Team information
Current team	Storey Racing
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Amateur teams
2010–2011	Horizon Fitness
2012	Escentual–For Viored
2013–2015	Breast Cancer Care
2017	Storey Racing
2019–	Storey Racing
Professional teams
2016	Podium Ambition Pro Cycling
2018	Storey Racing
Medal record Representing  Great Britain Women's swimming Event 1st 2nd 3rd Paralympic Games 5 8 3 IPC World Championships 6 5 5 Total 11 13 8 Paralympic Games 1992 Barcelona 100 m backstroke S10 1992 Barcelona 200 m individual medley SM10 1996 Atlanta 100 m backstroke S10 1996 Atlanta 100 m breaststroke SB10 1996 Atlanta 200 m individual medley SM10 1992 Barcelona 400 m freestyle S10 1992 Barcelona 4×100 m freestyle S7–10 1992 Barcelona 4×100 m medley S7–10 1996 Atlanta 400 m freestyle S10 2000 Sydney 100 m backstroke S10 2000 Sydney 4×100 m medley 34pts 2004 Athens 100 m breaststroke SB9 2004 Athens 200 m individual medley SM10 1992 Barcelona 100 m freestyle S10 1996 Atlanta 100 m freestyle S10 2004 Athens 100 m freestyle S10 IPC World Championships 1994 Malta 4x100m Freestyle relay S7-S10 and 100 m Breaststroke SB10[2] 2002 Mar del Plata 100 m Freestyle S10[3] 2002 Mar del Plata 200 m Ind. Medley SM10[4] 2002 Mar del Plata 400 m Freestyle S10[5] 1994 Malta 100 m Backstroke S10[6] 1994 Malta 200 m Ind. Medley SM10[7] 1994 Malta 400 m Freestyle S10[8] 1998 Christchurch 100 m Backstroke S10[9] 1998 Christchurch 4x100 m Medley open[10] 2002 Mar del Plata 100 m Backstroke S10[11] 1994 Malta 4x100 m Medley S7-10[12] 1998 Christchurch 200 m Ind. Medley SM10[13] 1998 Christchurch 400 m Freestyle S10[14] 1998 Christchurch 4x100 m Freestyle open[15] 2002 Mar del Plata 50 m Freestyle S10[16] Women's cycling Event 1st 2nd 3rd Paralympic Games 14 0 0 Para Track World Champs 18 2 3 Para Road World Champs 14 2 0 Para Euro Cycling Champs 3 1 0 Total 44 5 2 Paralympic Games 2008 Beijing Time trial LC 1–2/CP 4 2012 London Time Trial C5 2012 London Road Race C4–5 2016 Rio de Janeiro Time trial C5 2016 Rio de Janeiro Road race C4-5 2020 Tokyo Time trial C5 2020 Tokyo Individual Road Race C4–5 2024 Paris Time trial C5 2024 Paris Road race C4–5 Road World Championships 2009 Bogogno Time trial LC1[17] 2009 Bogogno Road race LC1[18] 2010 Baie-Comeau Time trial C5[19] 2010 Baie-Comeau Road race C5[20] 2011 Roskilde Time trial C5[21] 2011 Roskilde Road race C5[22] 2014 Greenville Time trial C5[23] 2014 Greenville Road race C5[24] 2015 Nottwil Time trial C5[25] 2015 Nottwil Road race C5[26] 2023 Glasgow Time trial C5 2023 Glasgow Road race C5 2024 Zurich Time trial C5 2024 Zurich Road race C5 2006 Aigle Time trial[27] 2006 Aigle Road race[27] European Championships[27] 2005 Alkmaar Road Race[27] 2005 Alkmaar Time Trial[27] Track cycling Paralympic Games 2008 Beijing Individual pursuit LC 1–2/CP 4 2012 London Individual pursuit C5 2012 London Time Trial C4–5 500m 2016 Rio de Janeiro Individual pursuit C5 2020 Tokyo Individual pursuit C5 Track World Championships 2006 Aigle 3km Pursuit LC1 2007 Bordeaux 3km Pursuit LC1[27] 2009 Manchester 3km Pursuit LC1[28] 2009 Manchester 500m time trial LC1[29] 2011 Montichiari 500m time trial C5 2011 Montichiari 4km Pursuit C5 2012 Carson 500m time trial C5[30] 2012 Carson 3km Pursuit C5[31] 2014 Aguascalientes 3km Pursuit C5[32] 2014 Aguascalientes Scratch race C1-5[33] 2015 Apeldoorn 500m time trial C5[34] 2015 Apeldoorn 3km Pursuit C5[35] 2016 Montichiari 3km Pursuit C5[36] 2020 Milton Individual pursuit C5 2020 Milton Scratch race C5 2020 Milton Omnium C5 2022 Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Individual pursuit C5 2016 Montichiari 500m time trial C5[37] 2016 Montichiari Scratch race C5[38] 2007 Bordeaux 400m time trial LC1[27] 2014 Aguascalientes 500m time trial C5[39] 2020 Milton 500m time trial C5 European Championships[27] 2005 Alkmaar Individual Pursuit[27] 2005 Alkmaar 500m time trial[27]

Her total of 30 Paralympic medals, including 19 gold medals, makes her the most successful (by gold medals) and most decorated (by total medals) British Paralympian of all time as well as one of the most decorated Paralympic athletes of all time.^[40][41] She has the unique distinction of winning five gold medals in Paralympics before turning 19.

Storey's major achievements include being a 29-time World champion (6 in swimming and 23 in cycling), a 21-time European champion (18 in swimming and 3 in cycling) and holding 75 world records.^[42] She is regarded as one of the most experienced campaigners in the history of the Paralympics as she took part at the Paralympics on nine occasions between 1992 and 2024.^[43]

For several years at her peak, Storey's progress was such that she was competitive at able-bodied elite level on the track, and for a period was in the Great Britain Olympic squad programme for team pursuit. She won a number of UCI Track Cycling World Cup gold medals in team pursuit in that period, and narrowly missed the (able-bodied) women's hour world record by less than 600 metres, taking the national record. She remains the current para world record holder in women's 3000m individual pursuit and hour record.

On 2 September 2021, she surpassed Mike Kenny's 16 Paralympic gold medal record to become Great Britain's most successful Paralympic athlete of all time after securing her 17th Paralympic gold medal when she won the women's road race C4-5 event.^[44][45]

Early life

Storey was born Sarah Bailey in Manchester^[46] without a functioning left hand after her arm became entangled in the umbilical cord in the womb and the hand did not develop as normal.^[47] As a schoolgirl, she was subjected to bullying by her school mates and also faced eating disorder issues at school.^[48] She joined her first swimming club at the age of ten and was told by her coach that she had started her training too late to be good at anything.^[49]

Swimming at the Paralympic Games

Storey began her Paralympic career as a swimmer,^[50] winning two golds, three silvers and a bronze in Barcelona in 1992 at the age of 14.

She retained her Paralympic gold medals in women's 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley events at the 1996 Summer Paralympics. Despite the diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME), she continued to participate in swimming and claimed four silver medals and a solitary bronze in the next two Paralympic Games in 2000 and 2004 before quitting the sport.^[51]

Cycling

Storey at the Our Greatest Team Parade, in 2012.

At the 2008 Paralympic Games, her fifth, Storey won the individual pursuit – in a time that would have been in the top eight at the Olympic final^[52] – and the Women's road time trial.

Storey also competes against non-disabled athletes and won the 3 km national track pursuit championship in 2008, eight days after taking the Paralympic title,^[53] and successfully defended her title in 2009.^[54] In 2014, she added a third national track title with a win in the points race.^[55]

Storey qualified to join the England team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where she was "the first disabled cyclist to compete for England at the Commonwealth Games", against non-disabled cyclists.^[56] She was also the second Paralympic athlete overall competing for England at the Games, following archer Danielle Brown earlier in Delhi.^[57]

In 2011, Storey competed for one of the three places in the GB squad for the women's team pursuit at the 2012 Olympic Games. Although she was in the winning team for the World Cup event in Cali, Colombia in December 2011,^[58] she was informed afterwards that she was being dropped from the team pursuit squad.^[59]

London's 2012 Paralympics Games saw Storey win Britain's first gold medal, in the women's individual C5 pursuit.^[60][61][62] She went on to win three more gold medals, one in the Time Trial C4–5 500m,^[62] one in the Individual Road Time Trial C5^[62] and finally one in the Individual Road Race C4–5.^[63]

In 2014, Storey and her husband Barney Storey founded the Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International women's amateur cycling team, supporting the charity Boot Out Breast Cancer. The team fielded squads in the 2014 and 2015 British road race seasons.^[64][65]

Storey attempted to break the world hour record at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London on 28 February 2015. She set a distance of 45.502 km, which was 563m short of Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel's 2003 overall world record – however Storey's distance did set a new world record in the C5 Paralympic cycling class as well as a new British record.^[66]

In the Rio 2016 Paralympics Storey became Britain's most successful female Paralympian when she won the C5 3000m individual pursuit final.^[67]

She became the first athlete to win the gold medal for Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Paralympics when she defended her Paralympic title in the women's individual pursuit C5 event.^[68] It was also her fifth Paralympic gold medal in track cycling and her tenth Paralympic gold medal in women's cycling. It was also her record 15th gold medal in her Paralympic career.^[48] During the qualifying heat event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics she broke her own world record by four seconds in the individual pursuit C5 category.^[69][70]

In 2024 she won at the Paris Paralympics her 18th Games gold medal, winning the women's road event for a fifth successive Paralympics.^[71]

Personal life

Storey married tandem pilot and coach Barney Storey in 2007.^[72] She gave birth to a daughter on 30 June 2013^[73][74] and a son on 14 October 2017.^[74] She and her husband live in Disley, Cheshire.^[75][46]

In April 2019, Storey was appointed Active Travel Commissioner for the Sheffield City Region.^[76] In April 2024 Storey was elected as President of Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Storey is related to the screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst.

Honours

Storey was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1998 New Year Honours "for services to Swimming for People with Disabilities".^[77] Following the Beijing Games, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours "for services to Disabled Sport."^[78] In 2012, she was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Manchester.^[79] Following the 2012 London Games, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours "for services to para-cycling".^[80][81]

Storey was a nominee for the 2008 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability and the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.^[82] She won The Sunday Times Disability Sportswoman of the Year in 2020, her win being officially announced in an online ceremony.^[83] Storey was a nominee for the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.^[84]

Major results

1992

Paralympic Games

1st 100 m Backstroke

1st 200 m Individual Medley

2nd 400 m Freestyle

2nd 4x100 m Freestyle

2nd 4x100 m Medley

3rd 100 m Freestyle

1994

World Para Swimming Championships

1st 200 m Individual Medley

1st 100 m Breaststroke

2nd 100 m Backstroke

2nd 400 m Freestyle

3rd 4x100 m Medley

1996

Paralympic Games

1st 100 m Breaststroke

1st 100 m Backstroke

1st 200 m Individual Medley

2nd 400 m Freestyle

3rd 100 m Freestyle

1998

World Para Swimming Championships

2nd 100 m Backstroke

2nd 4x100 m Medley

3rd 400 m Freestyle

3rd 200 m Individual Medley

3rd 100 m Breaststroke

3rd 4x100 m Freestyle

2000

Paralympic Games

2nd 100 m Backstroke

2nd 4x100 m Medley

2002

World Para Swimming Championships

1st 100 m Freestyle

1st 400 m Freestyle

1st 200 m Individual Medley

2nd 100 m Backstroke

3rd 50 m Freestyle

2004

Paralympic Games

2nd 100 m Breaststroke

2nd 200 m Individual Medley

3rd 100 m Freestyle

2005

European Para-cycling Championships

1st Road Race

1st Individual Pursuit

1st 500m Time Trial

2nd Time Trial

European Open Para-cycling Championships

1st Road Race

1st Individual Pursuit

2nd 500m Time Trial

3rd Time Trial

National Track Championships

7th Individual Pursuit

2006

UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

3rd 500m Time Trial

National Track Championships

1st Para-cycling Individual Pursuit

3rd Individual Pursuit

7th 500m Time Trial

UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships

2nd Road Race

2nd Time Trial

2007

UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

3rd 500m Time Trial

National Road Championships

1st Para-cycling Road Race

National Track Championships

1st Para-cycling Individual Pursuit

7th 500m Time Trial

UCI Paralympic World Cup

1st Individual Pursuit

1st 500m Time Trial

2008

Paralympic Games

1st Time Trial

1st Individual Pursuit

National Track Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

UCI Paralympic World Cup

1st Individual Pursuit

3rd 500m Time Trial

2009

UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

1st 500m Time Trial

UCI Road Para-cycling World Championships

1st Road Race

1st Time Trial

UCI Masters Road Para-cycling World Championships

1st Time Trial

2nd Road Race

National Track Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

UCI Paralympic World Cup

1st Individual Pursuit

1st 500m Time Trial

2010

UCI Road Para-cycling World Championships

1st Road Race

1st Time Trial

National Track Championships

1st Team Pursuit

2nd Individual Pursuit

6th Commonwealth Games, Individual Pursuit

1st Overall 2 Days of Bedford International Stage Race

1st Stages 1 & 2

9th National Road Championships, Road Race

2011

UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

1st 500m Time Trial

UCI Road Para-cycling World Championships

1st Road Race

1st Time Trial

National Track Championships

1st Team Pursuit

4th Individual Pursuit

1st Overall 2 Days of Bedford International Stage Race

1st Mountains classification

1st Stages 1 & 2

UCI Track Cycling World Cup–Manchester

1st Team Pursuit

Sydney Road World Cup

1st Road Race

1st Time Trial

1st Blenheim Palace Time Trial Event

3rd National Road Championships, Time Trial

2012

Paralympic Games

1st Individual Pursuit

1st 500m Time Trial

1st Time Trial

1st Road Race

2012 UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

1st Time Trial

2nd Team Sprint

UCI Track Cycling World Cup–Cali

1st Team Pursuit

1st Overall Essex Giro Stage Race

1st Blenheim Palace Time Trial

1st Curlew Cup Road Race

1st Caperwry Road Race

1st Cheshire Classic Road Race

9th Overall Tour du Limousin

2014

2014 UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

1st Scratch Race

3rd 500m Time Trial

2014 UCI Road Para-cycling World Championships

1st Road Race

1st Time Trial

National Track Championships

1st Points Race

2nd Team Pursuit

1st Overall Essex Giro Stage Race

1st Cheshire Classic Road Race

1st Stage 2 Tour de Bretagne Feminine

3rd National Road Championships, Time Trial

2015

2015 UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

2nd 500m Time Trial

2015 UCI Road Para-cycling World Championships

1st Road Race

1st Time Trial

National Track Championships

1st Team Pursuit

1st Cheshire Classic Road Race

1st Overall National Time Trial Series

3rd National Road Championships, Time Trial

3rd Points Race, Revolution – Round 4, Glasgow

2016

Paralympic Games

1st Individual Pursuit

1st Time Trial

1st Road Race

2016 UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

2nd 500m Time Trial

2nd Scratch Race

3rd National Road Championships, Time Trial

2017

National Track Championships

3rd Team Pursuit

2019

2019 UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

2020

2019 UCI Track Para-cycling World Championships

1st Individual Pursuit

1st Scratch Race

1st Omnium

2020

Paralympic Games

1st Individual Pursuit

1st Time Trial

1st Road Race

World records

Date	Discipline	Time	Event	Location	Ref
14 August 2005	3000m Individual Pursuit (LC 1)	4'01"140		Alkmaar,  Netherlands	[85]
11 September 2006	3000m Individual Pursuit (LC 1)	3'53"107		Aigle,  Switzerland	[85]
12 September 2006	3000m Individual Pursuit (LC 1)	3'51"666		Aigle,  Switzerland	[85]
22 August 2007	3000m Individual Pursuit (LC 1)	3'48"622		Bordeaux,  France	[85]
10 September 2008	3000m Individual Pursuit (LC 1)	3'36"637	2008 Paralympic Games	Beijing,  China	[85]
7 November 2009	3000m Individual Pursuit (LC 1)	3'34"266		Manchester,  Great Britain	[85]
29 November 2011	3000m Individual Pursuit (C5)	3'33"248		Manchester,  Great Britain	[85]
30 August 2012	3000m Individual Pursuit (C5)	3'32"170	2012 Paralympic Games	London,  Great Britain	[85]
2 April 2014	3000m Individual Pursuit (C5)	3'32"050		Aguascalientes,  Mexico	[85]
28 February 2015	Hour record (C5)	45.502 km	UCI Track Cycling World Cup	Lee Valley VeloPark, London,  Great Britain	[85]
8 September 2016	3000m Individual Pursuit (C5)	3'31"394	2016 Paralympic Games	Rio de Janeiro,  Brazil	[85]

See also

• 2012 Olympics gold post boxes in the United Kingdom
• List of multiple Paralympic gold medalists
• List of multiple Paralympic gold medalists at a single Games