Michael David BushellMBE is a Paralympic gold medalist and personal trainer from Telford, Shropshire, England. He suffers from lumbar sacral spinal agenesis congenital paraplegia and competes in T53 category sprint events. He is the British record holder at 100m and 200, and a European record holder at 100m.
Early life
Bushell was born on 8 June 1990 at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Due to his health problems doctors initially told his parents that he would probably never be able sit up or mobilise 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 winning silver in the men's T53100 metres – T53 event. He also competed in the 200m event, but was knocked out in the first round. 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. 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. After struggling with illness in 2015, Bushell made an encouraging return to action in 2016 by winning the European title in the T53 100m in Grosseto, as well as a 400m bronze. Later that year he competed in the 2016 Paralympic games in Rio defending his 100m, although was only able to manage a disappointing sixth-place finish crossing the line in 15.09s. Bushell is the current British Record holder for the T53 class in the 100m and 200m events, and also the European record holder at 100m.
Health issues
Bushell suffers from lumbar sacral spinal sgenesis congenital paraplegia. In Bushell's case this means he is missing seven vertebrae from the lower part of the spine just above the coccyx. He has no abdominal wall muscle control, his legs and hips have never fully developed and float unsupported at the lower end of his body. In 2007, during his preparations for the Paralympic games in Beijing, Bushell began suffering from recurrent kidney infection necessitating a nephrectomy. Despite this potentially career ending condition just three months after the operation he recorded a personal best in the 100m to qualify for the Beijing Paralympics, where he won a silver in the T53. Shoulder and elbow injuries in 2013 and 2014 further threatened his career, but despite this he still managed to claim silver at the IPC World Championships in Lyon and two medals at the IPC European Championships in Swansea. Recurrent urinary tract infections in 2015 culminated in life-threatening septacaemia. At the time this was incorrectly reported by the BBC as a chlamydia infection. He subsequently made a complete recovery, although his training was significantly set back the seven month recuperation period.
