Maria Lyle (born 14 February 2000) is a parasport

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

from

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

competing mainly in T35 sprint events. At the age of 14 she set a world record in the 200m sprint, a record she has broken on several occasions. In 2014, she qualified for the

IPC Athletics European Championships The World Para Athletics European Championships (''European Para Athletics Championships''), known prior to 2018 as the IPC Athletics European Championships is an event organized by World Para Athletics, the international athletics federation estab ...

in Swansea and won gold in both the 100m and 200m T35.

Personal history

Lyle was born in

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...

, Scotland, in 2000 to Raymond and Susan Lyle. She has one younger sister. She has spastic dipelgic

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

, attributed to her mother contracting shingles while pregnant with her. Lyle is a former pupil of Dunbar Grammar School, having also attended Oaklands College in Hertfordshire, graduating from the elite Oaklands Wolves Sports Academy in 2017. She is studying for a degree in sports coaching at

Edinburgh Napier University , mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain , established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College , type = Public , academic_staff = 802 , administrative_staff = 562 , chancellor = Will Whitehorn , ...

on a dual career athlete programme under the UK government's Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme. Lyle and journalist Gary Heatly co-host This Ability Podcast
GH Media
.

Running career

Lyle began running at the age of nine. In 2009, she joined Dunbar Running Club and began competing at local and national meets mainly in sprint events. In July 2012, at the age of 12, she posted a world record time of 32.37 in the 200m at the Birmingham Games. Despite the fact that this was faster than the winning time of 32.72 set by China's Liu Ping in the 2012 Paralympic 200m T35 final, Lyle was ineligible for the Games as she was too young to be given a disability classification which also meant that her record time could not be officially accepted. In 2014, she was classified as a T35 athlete and in February she travelled to Dubai to compete at the Fazaa International, an IPC Grand Prix event. There she entered both the 100m and 200m sprints. She won gold in the 100m with a time of 14.58, though this was classed as wind assisted so she could not claim it as a personal best. In the 200m she ran 31.01, winning gold and beating Liu Ping's 2005 record of 32.27. Later that year in May she competed at the Bedford International Open and set a world record in the 100m of 14.63, and surpassed her own world record in the 200m with a time of 30.71. Lyle was selected for her first major international when she represented Great Britain at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea. In her first event, the 100m T35, she won gold with a time of 14.92, beating Italy's

Oxana Corso Oxana Corso (born 9 July 1995 in Saint Petersburg) is a Russian-born Italian Paralympic athletics, Paralympic athlete. , she holds the Women's 400 metres world records for the T35 (classification), T35 cerebral palsy classification. She won a si ...

by over a second and a half. The next day she took part in the 200m, and in poor weather conditions ran 31.05 to take her second European title. In the build up to the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Lyle took part in the

Newham The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the ...

International where she ran 13.90 in the 100m and 29.24 in the 200m sprint, though the times were unofficial and did not count as world records. In Doha, Lyle's first event saw her line up against the new world record holder

Isis Holt Isis Holt (born 3 July 2001) is an Australian Paralympic athlete competing in T35 sprint events. She is affected by the condition cerebral palsy. Holt won gold medals in the 100 m and 200 m at the 2015 and 2017 World Para Athletics Championship ...

. Holt, a 14 year old from Australia, pushed Lyle into second place with a world record sprint, though Lyle's time of 29.32 was an official personal best and new European record. At the 2016 IPC Athletics European Championships in

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is the m ...

Lyle won three golds, in the T35 100m

200m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a Sprint (running), sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run th ...

- where she set a new championship record of 29.91s - and the T35-T38 4 x 100m relay, alongside

Olivia Breen Olivia "Livvy" Breen (born 26 July 1996) is a Welsh Paralympian athlete, who competes for Wales and Great Britain mainly in T38 sprint and F38 long jump events. She qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics and was selected for the T38 100m a ...

Georgina Hermitage Georgina Hermitage, (born 28 March 1989) is a former British parasport athlete competing in T37 sprint events. In 2015, she qualified for the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, selected for the T37 100m and 200m. She took the gol ...

and Sophie Hahn. At the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , 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 ...

, Lyle took individual bronze medals in the T35 100m and the

, and a silver as part of Team GB's T35-T38 4 x 100m relay squad. At the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London, she took two more medals, a bronze in the T35 100m and a silver in the

. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, Lyle took a silver in the T35 100m. However, after the Games, her mental health worsened, which she later admitted had led to her considering quitting the sport. She was diagnosed with anxiety, which she overcame with the support of a specialist sports counsellor. At the 2018 World Para Athletics European Championships in Berlin, Lyle successfully defended her T35 100m title. In June 2021 she was among the first dozen athletes chosen for the UK athletics teams at the postponed 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. At the Games she took another Paralympic bronze in the T35 100m. She is coached by Jamie Bowie.

Other awards

Lyle was awarded

British Athletics UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics (sport), athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics o ...

Young Paralympic Athlete of the Year in 2014. She was named Para Athlete of the Year at the

Scottish Athletics Scottish Athletics, stylised as scottishathletics, is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Scotland. Established as a limited company on 1 April 2001, it succeeded the Scottish Athletics Federation (SAF) and is a member of the Commonwe ...

annual awards in 2015 and 2019. Lyle received the Findlay Calder trophy from

Scottish Disability Sport Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

in 2018 and 2020. She was named

Glasgow Evening Times The ''Glasgow Times'' is an evening tabloid newspaper published Monday to Saturday in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Called ''The Evening Times'' from 1876, it was rebranded as the ''Glasgow Times'' on 4 December 2019.2000 births Scottish female sprinters Living people World record holders in Paralympic athletics British disabled sportspeople Sportswomen with disabilities Track and field athletes with cerebral palsy Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Scotland Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games World Para Athletics Championships winners People from Dunbar Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games