sport news Canoeist Rob Oliver in tears after fairytale ending to Paralympic career by ...

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The reason why Rob Oliver was sitting in a canoe at the start of a Paralympic sprint final will astonish the thousands of people who step on to a Sunday League football pitch this weekend.

Oliver was a trainee aerospace engineer, playing recreational football at right back for Solihull Red Diamonds in the West Midlands, when he went up for a corner, scored as the ball fell to him and had his leg broken in two places when an opponent tried to block the shot.

‘It was a clean break,’ he said on Friday. ‘I didn’t expect nine months later I wouldn’t have a leg any more.’

There were 17 operations, the failure to diagnose a blood supply condition and eventually the leg was removed. ‘The first few months in hospital were tough,’ said Oliver.

‘I was talking to the wall, I’d been there so long. I didn’t want to admit I’d never play football again.’

The hospital later admitted negligence in his case. Canoeing was Oliver’s way back, though that road has by no means been linear because there are no guarantees of glory in Paralympic sport.

Oliver was the only member of the six-strong GB canoe sprint team not to take a medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and that left him utterly desolate.

‘Over and over again, I was known as the only guy who didn’t win a medal,’ he reflected. ‘You’re the only person at the training ground that doesn’t have a billboard. Every time it would be, “We’re going here... but sorry it’s only the medallists”. That first year was really tough.’

The most recent obstacle came five weeks before these Paralympics when he contracted Covid. He missed the sprint team’s training camp and had severe doubts he would make it here at all. But that had an unexpected psychological effect when he arrived.

‘It almost took the pressure off,’ he said. ‘I thought, “What else can go wrong?” Just being here and embracing these Games felt enough for me and having that mindset

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