Meet Transformational Coach and Paralympian James Roberts

James Roberts

I was born with a congenital disability called femoral dysplasia of the left leg; also known as Proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD) or as Congenital Femoral Deficiency (CFD), is a rare, non-hereditary birth defect that affects the pelvis, particularly the hip bone, and the proximal femur. The disorder may affect one side or both, with the hip being deformed and the leg shortened. As well as a floating hip and scoliosis of the spine.

Yes, it took longer to learn to crawl, to walk with the aid of an artificial leg that was fixed at the knee and with the support of a zimmer frame at first, and to be able to do things my able-bodied peers took for granted.
I struggled to come to terms with my disability as a teenager, whereby in the hot spring and summer months in high school, I wouldn’t wear shorts. Even though I wore shorts in PE.

It wasn’t until it dawned on me that the only person this was affecting was me, so something had to change.

But in all these circumstances, I found a way, my way of overcoming these hurdles.
I believe it is this mindset that set me up to win in later life and go on to represent my country at 4 World Championships amongst others as well as 2 Paralympics.

I’m a transformation coach by trade, but I was an elite Paralympic athlete for just over a decade.

I started out my sporting career in swimming and was part of British Swimming’s Potential Squad from 2003-05. During that time, I held the SB8 200m breaststroke and 50m breaststroke national records.

After being dropped from the GB swimming programme, I moved on to rowing in 2006. The transition happened fairly quickly as I made my first senior international competition that summer at the 2006 World Championships in Dorney Lake, Great Britain and made the final finishing 6th. 2007 World Championships Semi-Finalist, 2008 Paralympic Finalist (5th) and 2009 World Championships Finalist (5th).

I made another transition of sport, this time to sitting volleyball. From 2010 until 2012, I amassed 56 caps for Great Britain. My first international was a surprise selection to compete at the 2010 World Championships in Edmund, Oklahoma, USA. I was lucky enough that my time with the squad, to have competed for Great Britain at my only European Championships in my repertoire as well as a Continental and Intercontinental Cup. My career culminated at the London 2012 Paralympics were the GB sitting volleyball squad lost in the quarter-final to eventual silver medalist Iran.

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