Martine Wright | 7/7 Survivor and Former Paralympian on Trans World Sport — Transcript

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1. 0:02the international Olympic Committee has
2. 0:04the honor of announcing that the games
3. 0:07of the 30th Olympiad in
4. 0:102012 are awarded to the city of
5. 0:17London on July the 6th 2005 that ioc
6. 0:21announcement spaed wild celebrations
7. 0:23across the British
8. 0:24Capital however the events of the
9. 0:27following morning would change the mood
10. 0:29across London from one of elation to
11. 0:31utter horror I was on the way to work um
12. 0:35I'd got up a little late because I'd
13. 0:38gone out with work colleagues
14. 0:39celebrating that London had had won the
15. 0:41Olympic bid um so I was 10 minutes late
16. 0:45got late to train and uh sat on a
17. 0:48carriage that I never sit on usually um
18. 0:52and then we went a few stops and then
19. 0:54went into a tunnel and then
20. 0:57uh as I you know was read reading the
21. 1:00paper uh just a huge white flash was in
22. 1:04front of my eyes and it it it's just
23. 1:07weird that I sort of had time to think
24. 1:11what's what's going on what's going on I
25. 1:13remember thinking what's going on and
26. 1:15obviously it's a split second that you
27. 1:16had this white Flash in front of you and
28. 1:19I felt like I was being
29. 1:21um well I've I've used the analogy
30. 1:24before of a cartoon character being hit
31. 1:27by a frying pan and and in cartoons they
32. 1:29go
33. 1:30you know they they sort of bounc from
34. 1:32side to side I I literally felt like
35. 1:35that on July the 7th while a million
36. 1:38people made their morning commute four
37. 1:40suicide bombers hit London's transport
38. 1:47system 52 people were killed and nearly
39. 1:50800 were left injured by the terrorist
40. 1:53[Music]
41. 1:56attack Martine Wright was on a train
42. 1:58between oldgate and Liverpool Street
43. 2:00Station when 22-year-old Shad tanir took
44. 2:03his own and seven other people's lives
45. 2:06Split Second later I open my eyes and uh
46. 2:10you know I was I was sitting on not a
47. 2:13seat anymore and just in this sort of
48. 2:17environment of black sort of Devastation
49. 2:20that that looked nothing like a a tube
50. 2:23and um yeah just lots of
51. 2:27Screams I was the last to be rescued cuz
52. 2:31my legs were caught in in lots of shards
53. 2:33of metal I actually wouldn't be here if
54. 2:35it if it wasn't for an opportunity
55. 2:37police woman called Liz she actually
56. 2:39decided to come down and not be
57. 2:41evacuated like everyone else um come
58. 2:43down to the The Carriage that was hit
59. 2:45and uh gave me a tornay and wrapped it
60. 2:47around my leg and I know now that she
61. 2:49saved my life because uh I lost about
62. 2:5175% of my blood anyway and if she hadn't
63. 2:54given me that i' i' I wouldn't be here
64. 2:56talking to you you know my family spent
65. 2:5848 Hours looking looking for me because
66. 3:01I was sort of uh I didn't have any idea
67. 3:03on me and then they finally found me at
68. 3:04the Royal London Hospital and then you
69. 3:06know that was the start of my
70. 3:07Rehabilitation that that took you know
71. 3:10nearly a year I was in hospital for
72. 3:12about 10 months um but I was one of the
73. 3:16lucky ones you know I was definitely one
74. 3:17of the lucky ones I'm still here I've
75. 3:19lost both my legs but you know I got new
76. 3:23legs um and I survived you know I was
77. 3:26definitely definitely one of the
78. 3:27luckiest persons you know that that was
79. 3:29involved that
80. 3:30[Music]
81. 3:33day once out of Hospital Martine briefly
82. 3:36returned to her work in marketing but
83. 3:38she quickly realized that she wanted
84. 3:40more from life she believes it was the
85. 3:42opportunity to take part in sport that
86. 3:44gave her the Boost she
87. 3:46desired I wouldn't be sitting here now
88. 3:49talking to you if I hadn't had the
89. 3:50opportunity to go off and try different
90. 3:53paralympic sport you know as well as as
91. 3:55making sport more inclusive people
92. 3:57forget about the positives that it gives
93. 3:59them and for instance someone that goes
94. 4:01through something traumatic in their
95. 4:02life you know they they lose their
96. 4:04confidence you know they they don't
97. 4:06really know where they are they they
98. 4:08lose their goals and things like that
99. 4:10and I think what uh sport really does is
100. 4:12is revive all those things in in
101. 4:16someone after trying out a variety of
102. 4:18sports Martin fell in love with sitting
103. 4:20volleyball the paralympic version of the
104. 4:23sport 6 years on from losing her legs
105. 4:25the 38-year-old is part of the British
106. 4:27women's team and is aiming to make the
107. 4:29final squad for next year's London 2012
108. 4:34[Music]
109. 4:36games played in teams of six the rules
110. 4:38are much the same as regular volleyball
111. 4:40the ball must be kept off the ground and
112. 4:42each team has three touches to get the
113. 4:44ball back over the
114. 4:47net in January 2010 less than S months
115. 4:50after getting together for the first
116. 4:52time Martin and the team traveled to
117. 4:54America where they tested themselves
118. 4:56against the world's best
119. 4:58[Music]
120. 5:02Matthew Rogers is the team manager we
121. 5:04were really pleased actually considering
122. 5:06it was most people's First International
123. 5:07competition you know the whole
124. 5:09experience of traveling away the whole
125. 5:10experience of being together for that
126. 5:12long it was it was a learning curve and
127. 5:13and we were pleased with the results and
128. 5:15if we were to go there again you know in
129. 5:16a couple of weeks time then obviously we
130. 5:18we'd be aiming and probably would
131. 5:19achieve slightly
132. 5:22higher Martin and the squad train
133. 5:25together at London's rampton University
134. 5:27for around 25 hours a week
135. 5:29[Music]
136. 5:32the coaching sessions are complemented
137. 5:33by Weekend training camps which are held
138. 5:35every
139. 5:36[Music]
140. 5:39month all the time spent together on and
141. 5:42off the court has fostered a strong team
142. 5:44ethic amongst both the men's and women's
143. 5:47[Music]
144. 5:50squads head coach Steve Jones believes
145. 5:52that the strong bond between the players
146. 5:54will be a key factor in any future
147. 5:57success it is a huge team sport we rely
148. 6:01on each other there there are no um
149. 6:03major players within the game everybody
150. 6:06has to work for each other if you're
151. 6:08going to be successful and we spend a
152. 6:10lot of time together so we've got to
153. 6:12like each other and so we've got a real
154. 6:14good rapport going on at the moment we
155. 6:16we're like a nice family if you like um
156. 6:19there's still some challenge within that
157. 6:21family for places on the courts but
158. 6:23essentially you know we're a tight-knit
159. 6:25group we have to be we spend a lot of
160. 6:27time together training playing eating
161. 6:31moaning nagging so that's you have to
162. 6:34like each other that's for
163. 6:37sure earlier in the year Martine and the
164. 6:40rest of the team traveled to stoke
165. 6:41Manderville the birthplace of the par
166. 6:43Olympic Games to take part in a friendly
167. 6:45tournament against Canada and the
168. 6:52Netherlands due to the lack of
169. 6:54international competitions it's at such
170. 6:56events where teams can gauge their
171. 6:58progress
172. 7:00[Music]
173. 7:01[Applause]
174. 7:04it's also at these sort of events where
175. 7:05players can stake their claim for that
176. 7:07all important place on the squad that
177. 7:09will compete at the 2012 London par
178. 7:12[Applause]
179. 7:15[Music]
180. 7:15[Applause]
181. 7:19[Music]
182. 7:19[Applause]
183. 7:20[Music]
184. 7:24Olympics the challenges now are around
185. 7:26proving credibility and showing that we
186. 7:28have two programs that are work worthy
187. 7:29of of competing in a par Olympics you
188. 7:31know that you do need to to earn the
189. 7:33jersey of Great Britain and there aren
190. 7:35aren't going to be any free t-shirts
191. 7:36handed out it is very much a case of of
192. 7:38what do we do and are we able to compete
193. 7:39with those teams that are going to be
194. 7:41there in
195. 7:41[Music]
196. 7:43London Martin Wright knows exactly where
197. 7:46she wants to be on August the 29th
198. 7:502012 to sort of get into that opening
199. 7:54ceremony um for me would be a dream come
200. 7:58true but also it's not just for me it's
201. 8:01it's for you know my husband my family
202. 8:04my son you know that have all supported
203. 8:06me and all given me so much uh
204. 8:09throughout my life but especially over
205. 8:10the last six years and I just think um
206. 8:13you know to be there I'm not just going
207. 8:15to be there for me I'm I'm going to be
208. 8:17there for all of them so uh I'm going to
209. 8:20do everything in my power to make sure
210. 8:22that I am
211. 8:25there Best of British Martin Wright