Tim Reddish

• Born: 12 April 1957

Tim Reddish

Tim Reddish has made an outstanding contribution to para-swimming, both as an athlete, coach and administrator.

Having being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, hereditary degenerative eye disease, at the age of 31, Reddish gradually began to lose his sight.

He had been a volunteer swimming coach but became a visually-impaired athlete and won 25 medals during a 13-year career in the pool.

Five of these were won at the 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games.

He started working for British Swimming in 1998, becoming the national performance director and eventually executive director for para-swimming.

Following the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, Reddish became chairman of the British Paralympic Association, a role he held until 2017, and was also a board member of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

He has been appointed an MBE, OBE and CBE for his services to swimming and disability sport and, in 2019, was also appointed as the Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, the county where he was born.