According to The Guardian, Tanni Grey Thompson has “done far more to normalise attitudes to wheelchair users than any number of activists chaining themselves to the gates of Downing Street”.

It’s probably not an effect she set out to produce-although as the holder of a degree in Politics and Social Administration she’d hardly need lecturing on the nature of equality. If Tanni Grey Thompson has changed perceptions, it is merely by being herself – an outstandingly talented and dedicated athlete.

As a frenetically sport-obsessed child she worshipped Gareth Edwards – her nomination for 100 Welsh Heroes – and threw herself into every available activity. While attending St Cyres School at Penarth she started competing in wheelchair athletics, sensationally winning a Welsh junior title at the age of 15.

Next stop was the sporting hothouse that is Loughborough University where she developed her strength and – equally importantly – her racing technique.

Tanni emerged as a major force in the 1992 Paralympics when she swept the board, winning Gold at 100,200,400 and 800 metres.

Her sackload of thirteen Paralympic medals, nine of them gold, has been gathered over three successive games at Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney. It seems unlikely to end there as her career edges towards Redgravian dimensions of longevity and distinction.

If there is a weakness it is perhaps that she makes her success appear effortless to those blissfully unaware of the hundred-mile-a-week training sessions she frequently puts in. Her cheerfully confident exterior conceals the grit beneath.

Now the mother of a daughter, Carys Olivia, Tanni Grey Thompson manages to fit in a secondary career as a television presenter in Wales. She has also written Seize the Day, the story of her life so far.

What she does with the rest of it should also make interesting reading.