Joanna Shuni Butterfield, (born 19 March 1979) is a British parasport athlete who competes in the F51 club and discus throw. In 2014 Butterfield set a European record in the club while winning the event at the

2014 IPC Athletics European Championships The 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships was a track and field competition for athletes with a disability open to International Paralympic Committee (IPC) affiliated countries within Europe, plus Azerbaijan and Israel. It was held in Swanse ...

. The following year she added the World title at the

2015 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships were a Paralympic track and field meet organized by the World Para Athletics subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee. The event was the 7th edition of what is now known as the World Para ...

in Qatar, securing a place at the

2016 Paralympic Games ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

Personal history

Butterfield was born in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, England in 1979, but later moved to Glasgow in Scotland. In 2011, she was diagnosed with a spinal tumor which resulted in her being paralysed below the waist.

Sports career

During her rehabilitation at a spinal unit in Glasgow, Butterfield was introduced to the sport of wheelchair rugby. In early 2012 she joined the Caledonian Crushers, and later became their vice-captain. In 2014 Butterfield was classified as a F51 disability athlete and began competing in regional meets in both the discus and club throw events. In August that year she was selected for the Great Britain team to compete at the

. There she competed in the F32/51 club throw, and set a new European record with a distance of 17.68m winning gold in all British podium alongside

Josie Pearson Josie Rachel Pearson MBE (born 3 January 1986) is a Paralympian wheelchair rugby player and athlete from England. Pearson represented Great Britain in the 2008 Summer Paralympics, becoming the first women to compete in wheelchair rugby for her c ...

and

Gemma Prescott Gemma Louise Prescott (born 25 September 1983 in Truro) is a British Paralympian track and field athlete competing in F32 throwing events. Prescott represented England in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, taking the bronze medal in the SP shot put. S ...

. That season she also competed at the SDS Championships in Perth and threw personal bests in both the discus (9.79m) and the club (19.50m), winning gold in both events. The following year Butterfield travelled to Dubai to take part in the Fazaa International, the first

IPC IPC may refer to: Computing * Infrastructure protection centre or information security operations center * Instructions per cycle or instructions per clock, an aspect of central-processing performance * Inter-process communication, the sharin ...

Grand Prix of the year. In the F32/33/51 discus she threw 8.87m to win the competition and beat the previous F51 European record by 27 centimetres. She also improved on her European record in the club with a throw of 19.69 which saw her take gold. In July Butterfield competed in her third IPC Grand Prix of the year, held at Olympic Park in London. A throw of 21.50 in the club not only gave her the title, but improved on her European title to take her within 40 cm of American Rachael Morrison's world record. Morrison was Butterfield's main rival when the two met at the

in Doha. In the club Butterfield threw 21.44 to set a championship record and push her American rival into silver medal place. But it was Morrison on top when they met a few days later in the T52 discus throw, with Butterfield coming third behind Morrison and Mexico's Leticia Ochoa Delgado. Though Butterfield's distance of 8.96m was a new European record for a F51 athlete. Butterfield was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to field athletics. In June 2021 she was among the first dozen athletes chosen to represent the UK at the postponed

2020 Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralympic ...

in Tokyo.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Butterfield, Joanna 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Bristol British female discus throwers Track and field athletes with disabilities Sportswomen with disabilities British disabled sportspeople Scottish disabled sportspeople British female club throwers Scottish Paralympic competitors Sportspeople from Glasgow Members of the Order of the British Empire People with paraplegia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics