David Smith MBE – Finding life’s purpose, winning gold at London 2012 and how he built resilience to enable him to learn to walk again four times.

A Life Less Ordinary with Sophie Elwes

Two-time world champion and gold medal-winning Paralympian David Smith MBE was born with a club foot and has had a rare tumour in his neck which left him fighting for his life after several major surgeries and having to learn how to walk again four times. We speak about how learning and competing in karate as a youngster taught him a set of values which would lead him to competing at multiple sports for Great Britain as both an able-bodied and para-athlete. His experiences have taught him his true values and he has been able to build extraordinary amounts of resilience that have enabled him to, literally, pick himself up each time he faces another life-threatening surgery. Competing as an able-bodied and para-athlete he has experienced stigma and he shares some fantastic advice about dealing with his ‘chimp’ – courtesy of his friendship with author of The Chimp Paradox, Dr Steve Peters. We speak about how enormous challenge can bring about resilience and a strong mindset, how the power of sport can build good human beings and he shares some brilliant advice about how to build resilience