Tom Hamer

When Tom was ten he was told, To give up swimming, outrightly, ‘Cos it would get him nowhere, But at 12 he swam the Channel. He has an intellectual disability, And is in the new class of S14, Which he embraced 14 aged, To join the ParalympicGB team. Commonwealths were his debut, Glasgow 2014, Tom won bronze, For the 200m, the freestyle event, To make quite an entry splash. And still in Glasgow, the Worlds, 2015, for Tom another bronze, In the 200 metres freestyle again, Which he did celebrate totally. Then 2016 and the Euro Champs, Took him onto Rio 2016 in Brazil, Because he secured two medals, A gold, a bronze: individual, free. In Rio Tom hit a high silver note, To take a second placement fair, In the men’s 100 metres freestyle, With a time of 1:56:58 minutes. He comes from Rawtenstall town, Which is in hilly Lancashire county, In the furnished Rossendale Valley, And has set three British records. 54.79 secs for the 100m freestyle, 1.57.27 mins for freestyle 200m, And in the 200 individual medley, 2.15.65 minutes: all UK records.