Quick Facts
Biography
Michael David Bushell MBE (born 8 June 1990) is a Paralympic athlete from Telford, Shropshire, England competing mainly in category T53 sprint events after being born without seven vertebrae in his back.
Early life
Bushell was born on 8 June 1990 at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. He weighed in at 6 pounds 4 ounces (2.8 kg). He was born with a very rare medical condition called Lumbar Sacral Spinal Agenesis Congenital Paraplegia which falls under the Caudal regression syndrome medical category. In Bushell's case this means he is ‘missing’ seven vertebrae from the lower part of the back just above the coccyx or tailbone. He has no stomach muscle control, his legs and hips float at the bottom of his body and have never really developed. Doctors initially told his parents that Bushell would probably never used his legs or be able to sit up on his own. But Bushell surprised everyone when he started crawling around, and eventually walking on his hands in a handstand position.
Athletic career
Bushell competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. There he won a silver medal in the men's 100 metres – T53 event and went out in the first round of the men's 200 metres – T53 event. Bushell also holds British Records for the T53 class in the 100m 200m 400m 800m and the European T53 class 100m
On 19 June 2009, Bushell set a new 100 m T53 world record in Ibach, Switzerland, beating the old record by three one-hundredths of a second.
On 3 September, in the London 2012 Paralympics, he won a gold medal for Great Britain in the T53 100m in a time of 14.75 seconds, just shy of the World Record time of 14.47 seconds.
Bushell was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to athletics.
He added further silverware to his collection in 2014 at the IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea where he claimed gold in the T53 100m. He picked up a silver medal in the 200m in wet and windy conditions but was just edged out of the medals in the 800m behind his teammate, Moatez Jomni.