Stephen James Miller

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born 27 May 1980) is a British

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 ...

who competes in the fields of

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

and

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

ing. He has won three gold, one silver, and one bronze medal in the F32/51 club throw at the Paralympics. In Paralympic F32/51 discus he won one bronze medal.

Personal life

Stephen Miller was born 26 May 1980, in

Cramlington, Northumberland Cramlington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, 6 miles (9 kilometres) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of its city centre. The name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or Anglo-Saxons. ...

. He started participating in athletics at the age of 11. He joined an after-school club, where he met Paralympian Norman Burns. Burns would later become his coach. He married Rachel Toland in August 2013. He was able to walk down the aisle with her since he had hip replacement surgery the previous October, which he had delayed until after the 2012 London Paralympics. He worked part-time as a web developer at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead. Miller and his wife founded SMILE Through Sport in 2013. The foundation encourages disabled people to participate in sports. He currently lives in his hometown of Cramlington.

Career

1996 Paralympics

The

1996 Paralympic Games The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internationa ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

were Miller's first Paralympic Games. He competed in the F50 club throw, winning with a distance of 25.84 metres. At the age of 16 he became Great Britain's youngest Paralympian or Olympian track and field competitors to win a gold medal.

2000 Paralympics

He won gold in the club throw at the

2000 Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. At the 2000 Games he originally placed fourth in discus with a throw of 14.99 metres. His team lodged a complaint against gold-medal winner

Robert Jachimowicz Robert Jachimowicz (born 7 June 1967) is a Paralympian athlete from Poland competing in category F53 throwing events. He has competed at one Summer Paralympics, in Sydney 2000 and at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha he won the ...

, saying his disability status was improperly classified. Jachimowicz was disqualified, and Miller advanced to the bronze medal position.

2004 Paralympics

Miller competed in the F32/51 club throw at the

2004 Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sports , opening = 17 September , closing = 28 September , opened_by = President Costis Stephanopoulos , cauldron = Georgios Toptsis , stadium = Olympic ...

in Athens. He won the event with a world-record breaking throw of 33.53 metres, beating the record set in 2000 by over seven metres. All six of his attempts would have been long enough to secure the gold medal. Miller won several medals at the Cerebral Palsy World Championships in 2005, including gold in the F32 club and gold in the F32 discus. He won his third consecutive gold medal for club throwing at the World Championships in 2006.

2008 Paralympics

While training at the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

for the

2008 Paralympic Games The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It wa ...

, Miller broke the F32 club throw world record with a distance of 34.93 metres. Miller had won gold in the club throw in the previous three Paralympic Games. Despite throwing for a personal best of 34.37 metres, he lost to new world-record holder

Mourad Idoudi Mourad Idoudi (born September 3, 1984) is a Paralympian athlete from Tunisia competing mainly in category F32 throwing events. Mourad competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China where he won gold medals in both the F32/51 club th ...

of Tunisia. Miller had owned that record since 1997. He finished the event with a silver medal at the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

2012 Paralympics

He was selected as captain of the men's athletics squad for

Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

. He had hip problems that required surgery to fix, and doctors thought he would take about a year to recover. He did not want to miss his home Paralympic Games in London so he competed through the pain. He failed to qualify for the finals. He underwent surgery for his hip following the Games. New Paralympic Committee rules cut off his funding, as only athletes projected to medal at the next Games were funded.

2016 Paralympics

Miller won a silver medal at the 2014 European Championships. With his poor performance at the 2012 Paralympics, his goal was to be on the podium 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 ...

. Initially his mother, who is also his coach, did not have enough funds to travel to the Games. Former owner of

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (born 1951), professor of classics at Brigham Young Unive ...

donated money to allow her to attend the event. There were ten competitors in the F32 club throw, but four failed to show up to the event prior to the start time. He earned a bronze medal with a season-best throw of 31.58 metres. He also won a bronze medal at the IPC World Championships in 2017 and a silver medal at the European Championships in 2018.

2020 Paralympics

He is currently training for the

2020 Paralympic Games 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 Paralymp ...

in Tokyo. He started a crowdfunding campaign to facilitate training and competition opportunities.

Awards and honours

Miller was awarded the Freedom of Gateshead on 25 June 2013. He was awarded the Freedom of Gateshead. He was awarded the

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

Cramlington Cramlington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, 6 miles (9 kilometres) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of its city centre. The name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or Anglo-Saxons. T ...

on 7 February 2014. Miller 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

2016 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2016 were 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 are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to sport.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Stephen 1980 births Living people British male discus throwers British club throwers Male club throwers Paralympic athletes for Great Britain Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Track and field athletes with cerebral palsy Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Cramlington Sportspeople from Northumberland Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Club throwers Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field)