Excessive jumper Jonathan Broom-Edwards sees the Paris crowd as “a beast to be harnessed” when he defends his Paralympic title in France later this 12 months.
Broom-Edwards was one in every of 10 British observe and discipline athletes named on the ParalympicsGB group within the first section of choice on Friday, with the rest of the athletics squad to be introduced subsequent month.
The 36-year-old from Essex, who might be competing at his third Video games, might be joined by fellow Paralympic and world champions in observe star Hannah Cockroft, shot putter Aled Sion Davies and javelin specialist Dan Pembroke.
Shot putter Sabrina Fortune and javelin thrower Hollie Arnold, who each received gold on the Worlds in Kobe final month, have additionally been named together with observe opponents Sammi Kinghorn and Ben Sandilands, who triumphed on the 2023 Worlds in Paris, and sprinter Kare Adenegan and lengthy jumper Olivia Breen, who have been silver medallists in France.
Broom-Edwards, who took silver on his Video games debut in Rio in 2016 earlier than claiming his maiden Paralympic title in Tokyo with solely group members and different athletes supporting him, instructed BBC Sport that he’s enthusiastic about having a crowd supporting him in France.
“In Tokyo, I nonetheless had a carry from being within the stadium, however nothing can evaluate to an precise full stadium,” he mentioned.
“I obtained a glimpse of it in Rio in 2016 after which obtained to expertise it once I labored as a pundit within the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham in the course of the 2022 Commonwealth Video games.
“It’s a beast to be harnessed and is one thing that you’ll want to be ready for, however you even have to permit it to hold you – in my case to larger heights.”
Broom-Edwards, who was born with talipes (membership foot), has at all times been a excessive jumper however solely realised after London 2012 that his impairment made him eligible for Paralympic competitors.