I am Rachael Latham and I have been training as a swimmer for over ten years at Horwich Swimming Club, Bolton Metro, North West Disability swim squad, the High Performance Centre in Manchester and, for a short time, at the City of Sheffield swim squad.

I have a birth injury to my left arm and swim using my right arm only, which lead me into disability swimming. I first competed at a national level in 2001 and made the British Swimming World Class Programme in 2004.

I am the 50 and 200 metres butterfly European record holder as well as the British 200m backstroke record holder and I was the Nationwide Junior Sports Award winner from 2002-2004. My most notable experience though, was becoming a double finalist at the 2008 Beijing Games, which was a thrilling experience. I finished fifth the 100m backstroke and seventh in the100m butterfly.

I believe competing at the BT Paralympic World Cup prior to the Games, where I won silver medal in the 100m butterfly in 2007, gave me quality racing experience for Beijing. I actually have two medals from the BT Paralympic World Cup though because as well as the silver I won in 2007, I won the bronze at the event in the 100m backstroke last year

I have been a part of the Daily Mail’s ‘Magnificent 7’ series, which, in association with the National Lottery, is following seven athletes through to 2012. I was previously identified in 2005 by the publication as a possible Paralympic medallist. 
 
I am currently studying sports development with coaching honours degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Since a young age my swimming has always been the most important thing in my life, however my education has now caught up with me and I have been trying to juggle my commitments in and out of the water. 

I have recently taken a break from training for international events due to my hectic schedule at University clashing with important exams and assignments. This is resulting in my absence from the BT Paralympic World Cup for the first time since 2006.

However due to my work placement with the University, I have the exciting opportunity to work with the BT Paralympic World Cup office to help organise the annual event, as an alternative to competing in the competition. I will be working on the media team for the event, so please look out for me when interviewing the competitors in athletics, swimming, wheelchair basketball and football seven-a-side.

Being a swimmer myself, I am looking forward to watching my fellow team members compete to hopefully win the overall team trophy for Great Britain. This will include my individual event which for an unusual change, I will be able to see my own competitor’s race from a whole new perspective in the media centre.

As well as the exciting arena of the Aquatics Centre, I am very much looking forward to meeting the famous Oscar Pistorius. This is a man I have only heard of but never formally met. I am a big supporter of Oscar in what he has achieved in athletics and it will be a good experience for me to interview stars like him.

It is true to say, I am also looking forward to being involved in sports that I do not know as much about, for example; the wheelchair basketball, where I can learn a lot about the sport and the athletes within it.

Rachael Latham is a Paralympic swimmer who will be working as part of media team at the 2010 BT Paralympic World Cup. She will be writing a series of blogs for insideworldparasport in the lead up to the event which will be staged in Manchester from May 25-31, with more than 400 competitors from over 31 countries scheduled to compete. Tickets for the BT Paralympic World Cup are now on sale. For more details click here.