A Man Of Many Sports

Sam Ruddock, A Sprinter turned shot putter, tells Euan Crumley about his Debt to American Football.

- Euan Crumley

AS THE New England Patriots stunned the Atlanta Falcons to win this year’s Super Bowl in dramatic fashion back at the beginning of this month, you would have struggled to find a more interested observer than Sam Ruddock.

He and his former Lough borough University American Football team-mates were enjoying their annual get-together, reunited to watch the current students’ line-up in their ‘homecoming game’, which just happens to coincide with the USA’s mammoth annual sporting show.

Watching is about as close as Ruddock can get to the sport these days, though. A former linebacker, he’s no longer allowed to ‘pad up’, not with world-class athletics aspirations to concentrate on now. The link between gridiron and track and field may not seem like an obvious one, but American Football is actually one of the main reasons why the 26-year-old has now been to two Paralympic Games and is setting his sights on the World Para Athletics Championships in London this summer.

It won’t be the first time Ruddock has competed in the famous stadium. A whirlwind introduction to sprinting saw him thrust into the heart of the London 2012 Paralympics almost before he could blink. Fast forward to 2016 and he was a British Paralympian again but this time, in Rio, he contested the shot put.

Having been advised to swap the track for the field, Ruddock did so in 2014 and is now firmly focused on throws. As a former keen footballer, rugby player and basketball player, too, it’s clear there is a sporting versatility in his armoury. It’s one that is all the more remarkable given that he has cerebral palsy – specifically spastic diplegia, which has an impact on his balance, coordination and flexibility in muscles in his lower body.