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| Full name | Stephen James Miller | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 26 May 1980 (age 43) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Stephen James Miller MBE (born 27 May 1980) is a British athlete who competes in the fields of Paralympic club and discus throwing. 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.
Stephen Miller was born 26 May 1980,[1] in Cramlington, Northumberland.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4]
He worked part-time as a web developer at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.[3] Miller and his wife founded SMILE Through Sport in 2013. The foundation encourages disabled people to participate in sports.[5] He currently lives in his hometown of Cramlington.[6]
The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta were Miller's first Paralympic Games. He competed in the F50 club throw, winning with a distance of 25.84 metres.[7][8] At the age of 16 he became Great Britain's youngest Paralympian or Olympian track and field competitors to win a gold medal.[9]
He won gold in the club throw at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney.[10]
At the 2000 Games he originally placed fourth in discus with a throw of 14.99 metres.[11] His team lodged a complaint against gold-medal winner Robert Jachimowicz, saying his disability status was improperly classified. Jachimowicz was disqualified, and Miller advanced to the bronze medal position.[12]
Miller competed in the F32/51 club throw at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens.[13] He won the event with a world-record breaking throw of 33.53 metres,[14] beating the record set in 2000 by over seven metres.[15] All six of his attempts would have been long enough to secure the gold medal.[16]
Miller won several medals at the Cerebral Palsy World Championships in 2005, including gold in the F32 club and gold in the F32 discus.[13][17] He won his third consecutive gold medal for club throwing at the World Championships in 2006.[3]
While training at the Australian Institute of Sport for the 2008 Paralympic Games, Miller broke the F32 club throw world record with a distance of 34.93 metres.[18][19] 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 of Tunisia.[20] Miller had owned that record since 1997.[21] He finished the event with a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.[22]
He was selected as captain of the men's athletics squad for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[23] 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.[9] 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.[24]
Miller won a silver medal at the 2014 European Championships.[2]
With his poor performance at the 2012 Paralympics, his goal was to be on the podium at the 2016 Paralympic Games.[25] Initially his mother, who is also his coach, did not have enough funds to travel to the Games. Former owner of Newcastle United John Hall donated money to allow her to attend the event.[26] 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.[27]
He also won a bronze medal at the IPC World Championships in 2017 and a silver medal at the European Championships in 2018.[1]
He is currently training for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. He started a crowdfunding campaign to facilitate training and competition opportunities.[28]
Miller was awarded the Freedom of Gateshead on 25 June 2013.[29] He was awarded the Freedom of Gateshead. He was awarded the Freedom of Cramlington on 7 February 2014.[6]
Miller was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to sport.[30]
