VIDEO: Golden girl Grace Clough is Sheffield's latest star

Grace Clough Sheffield Legends Star outside Town Hall Lord Mayor of Sheffield Denise Fox with Grace Clough, Cate MacDonald cabinet member and Richard Caborn

Paralympic rower Grace Clough, who won gold as part of the mixed fours team at the Rio games in September, beamed as she became the latest member of the Sheffield Legends group yesterday.

The 25-year-old former High Storrs School pupil suffers from Erb’s palsy, which affects the nerves in her right shoulder. She only started rowing three years ago after she was spotted at an event at the English Institute for Sport in Attercliffe.

Speaking outside the Town Hall yesterday, Grace said she was feeling ‘fantastic’ about the accolade. And before celebrating with her family, she made sure to pose for photos with children who had come to watch the ceremony - even letting them wear her gold medal.

“It’s hugely important to try to inspire the next generation,” she said.

“I was fortunate - I went to an event in Sheffield, got selected and took the opportunity.”

Grace has always played sport, and played basketball for Yorkshire under-16s before captaining her varsity team, as well as playing football while studying for a sociology degree at the University of Leeds.

“I quickly managed to get from one sport into another,” she said. “But it was the background in training at the facilities in Sheffield that allowed me to transfer so quickly.”

Olympic silver medal-winning gymnast Bryony Page was also at the celebration, and former sports minister Richard Caborn, now leading the Olympic Legacy Park project, said he was delighted that Sheffield had ‘yet again’ risen to the occasion and given an athlete the chance to be successful.

Plenty of Grace’s family turned up to watch the ceremony. Her mother Sue Carson said she was ‘in shock’ at the extent of Grace’s success - although she joked that the gold medal would never beat her own ‘Youlegrave Superstar’ award from 1977.

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