Hollie Arnold is heading for her eighth World Para Championships, while Bebe Jackson has been selected for her first. 

When Great Britain’s para athletics team travels to New Delhi for the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships this month (taking place from September 27-October 5), the squad will include athletes at just about every stage of their sporting careers.

The 37-strong contingent includes Hollie Arnold, who is heading to her eighth world championships – an extraordinary feat in any discipline. At the other end of the experience scale is 19-year-old Bebe Jackson, who is preparing for her very first.

For Arnold, receiving the call never gets old, and this time selection has in fact felt like a victory in itself.

“I was at such a low place in my life,” she says. “I didn’t know what the future held and if I’d get back into the sport.”

After winning her sixth consecutive F46 javelin world title in Kobe in 2024, Arnold went into the Paris Paralympics last summer with one goal: another gold. Instead, she left with bronze – still a major achievement by anyone's measure – but a moment that hit her harder than most realised.

“I think it just broke my heart. I realised I hadn’t been okay for years and I had always mentally put that on the back burner,” says the 2016 Paralympic champion. “All I wanted was to train, to compete and to go out there and win but I think it takes a really brave person to put their hand up and say they aren’t okay. I needed to do something about that.”

In the months that followed, the 31-year-old stepped back from the sport completely for months, wrestling with the idea of retirement. “I was in such a low place,” she admits.

Eventually, Arnold found her way back – first to the training ground, then to the javelin itself. That first session was emotional.

“I was really worried that I wouldn’t feel that spark again and I wouldn’t be able to find that energy I usually bring to competitions. But, as soon as I started throwing again, I felt the smile on my face. I had missed it so much, it was a lovely feeling.”

Her comeback culminated at last month’s Novuna UK Athletics Championships in Birmingham, where she surprised herself by throwing 41.37m, her longest distance since 2019. That performance helped secure her spot on the team for New Delhi.

“I was like: ‘Did I just do that?’” she says.

While Arnold returns to the team as one of its most seasoned members and savouring her return to the sport, this is all going to be new for her young team-mate, Jackson, who got the call while on holiday in Barbados.

“I was already really happy just to be on holiday,” she says. “Then I got the call and I was completely gobsmacked because I didn't expect to be selected. It still hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Her boyfriend cried. Her grandad – with whom she lives in Wales – was the next call, as well as her parents. And then her coach. “It just didn’t feel real. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

It absolutely is a case of being thrown in the deep end. Until recently, Jackson, who was born with clubfoot, had been competing in a combined classification and placed outside the top medal positions. But a recent reclassification changed everything. Overnight, she jumped from 10th in the world to third in the T44 100m.

“My category used to be combined with the T64s. It’s a massive jump, especially for a 19-year-old with no international experience in sprinting. That jump is kind of scary but I’m ready to take it with two hands and just get on with it.”

 

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Jackson, like many in para sport, balances her training around a full-time job – in her case, working as a children’s carer for the NHS – and had just finished a night shift before sitting down to talk to AW.

“I do night shifts, day shifts, any kind of weird shift, they all change week from week,” she says. “I’m not going to lie to you, it is really difficult. There’s not enough money in para sport at the moment and I hope, looking 10 years down the line, there will be the opportunity to do it as a full-time job. But, at the moment, there isn’t.”

Her employers have been supportive, even if two weeks’ unpaid leave was needed to get to New Delhi. “They told me they’ve never had someone from our job go and do something like this, so they’re really proud but I do think there should be a special [holiday] requirement.”

In many ways, the stories of Jackson and Arnold reflect the different stages of an elite sporting life – but also a shared resilience. Arnold has seen para sport evolve significantly since her own breakthrough as a 14-year-old at the Beijing Paralympics.

“Back then, para sport didn’t have the platform it does now. Things really shifted around 2012, and it’s only grown since,” she says. “There’s more visibility, more support. But there’s still a way to go.

“Para sport has moved on since I broke through. There’s so much more talent out there now. It took me Beijing, London and then Rio to win my first Paralympic gold medal but now people are coming in and winning medals straight away.

“Obviously they’ve done the work in the background but the movement has come so far now. From [London] 2012, disability is now more aware and known and that’s amazing because it’s who we are and what we do.”

That’s not to say everything is heading in the right direction. Arnold points to the absence of para events in competitions like the Commonwealth Games and the limited integration in events like the Diamond League as causes for concern.

“The Commonwealth Games in 2018 was the first time that the para athletes and able-bodied athletes were mixed together but unfortunately I haven’t had an event since,” says the Gold Coast Commonwealth champion. “It’s a shame that not all para athletes are able to go there and compete.

“With the Diamond League, it would be incredible for me to throw with the able-bodied women because I throw exactly the same javelin weight. There needs to be a bit more of a connection and that will bring in support and sponsors, which is what we need.”

Arnold is also aware that, with her experience, comes responsibility. Athletes like Jackson will be looking to people like her for cues – about how to navigate the world of para sport in the still-evolving space.

“I wouldn’t call myself a role model,” Arnold says. “But I hope I’m approachable. If I can help in any way, I’m there.”

And for Jackson, those veteran voices matter. Breaking into the world of para sport was confusing at first, she says – an entirely new system with different classifications, rules, and a culture that’s not always easy to access. She credits athletes like Olivia Breen, Laura Sugar and Sophie Hahn for sharing their journeys on social media and making the sport more visible.

“It really helped me,” she says. “Now I want to do the same – to help younger athletes coming through.”

Jackson took up the sport after being encouraged by her schoolteacher to explore para athletics. Within a year, she had her first GB vest. That rapid ascent hasn’t changed her motivations, though. It’s still about the people around her – the friends she trains and competes with, and the family that supports her.

“In the NHS, I work alone so I don’t have colleagues to talk to everyday. Being at comps and being surrounded by other athletes… that’s all the inspiration I need.”

And for Arnold, it’s that same sense of togetherness that she’s most looking forward to in Delhi.

“We’re all spread out when we train,” she says. “So when we come together, that’s the magic. Being part of a team again – it’s incredible. It doesn’t get easier, but it also doesn’t get less exciting.”

The Novuna Great Britain & Northern Ireland team for the World Para Athletics Championships

Women

Kare Adenegan – T34 100m, 800m and 400m

Hollie Arnold – F46 Javelin

Fabienne Andre – T34 800m, 100m and 400m

Olivia Breen – T38 Long Jump,100m and Universal Relay

Hannah Cockroft – T34 100m, 800m, 400m and Universal Relay

Lydia Church – F12 Shot Put

Bree Cronin – F44 Discus*

Maddie Down – T38 Long Jump, 100m and Universal Relay

Sabrina Fortune – F20 Shot Put

Sophie Hahn – T38 100m, 200m and Universal Relay

Bebe Jackson  – T44 100m and 200m*

Victoria Levitt – T44 100m and 200m*

Anna Nicholson – F35 Shot Put

Funmi Oduwaiye – F44 Shot Put and F44 Discus

Didi Okoh – T63 100m

Ali Smith – T38 400m, 200m and Universal Relay

Amy Thompson – F41 Shot Put*

Hannah Taunton  – T20 1500m

Mel Woods – T54 800m, 400m and 1500m

Men

Jonathan Broom Edwards – T64 High Jump

Aled Davies – F63 Shot Put

Dan Gladman – T64 100m*

Dan Greaves – F44 Discus

Michael Jenkins – F38 Shot Put

Nathan Maguire – T54 1500m, 400m and 800m

Finlay Menzies – T72 100m and 400m*

Arthur Milles – T13 1500m*

Luke Nuttall – T46 1500m

Jonnie Peacock – T64 100m and Universal Relay

Dan Pembroke – F13 Javelin

Marcus Perrineau Daley  – T52 100m

Ben Sandilands – T20 1500m

Zac Shaw – T12 100m and Universal Relay

Zak Skinner  – T13 Long Jump

Luke Sinnott – T63 Long Jump

Harrison Walsh – F44 Discus

Thomas Young – T38 100m

*Making their senior international debuts