Dame of games (From Penarth Times)

Dame of games

TANNI Grey-Thompson, legend of Paralympic sport, was made a Dame this week after being named in the New Year's Honours list.

Tanni said: "I'm really excited, it's so cool. My husband and family have been taking the mickey out of me because they think it's hysterical. They've been singing There's nothing like a Dame. I'm not a very emotional person but I am over this."

A former St Cyres Comprehensive School pupil, Tanni became the most successful British Paralympian of all time after winning her 11th Olympic medal at last year's Athens Games, the fifth at which she has competed.

She took gold in both the T53 100m and the T53 400m races.

Tanni, who now lives in Middlesbrough with her husband and two-year-old daughter Carys, is already the holder of the OBE and the MBE.

She has won the London marathon six times - the last success coming two years ago only three months after baby Carys was born.

Tanni will take part in next April's Flora London Marathon and the World Cup in Manchester in May.

It has been an extraordinary year for the athlete who was also voted BBC Welsh Sports Personality of the Year for the third time.

The 35-year-old has spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair since the age of seven.

At the Barcelona Games in 1992 Tanni was in outstanding form winning four Olympic titles and setting 100m and 400m world records.

At the next Paralympics in Atlanta she brought home four medals and set a world record in the 800m.