Matt Lloyd (Paralympian)

Matthew "Matt" Lloyd (born 23 May 1972) is a British Paralympian who was born with spina bifida and two club feet. He has competed in ice sledge hockey at the 2006 Winter Paralympics, in Sitting volleyball at the 2007 European Championships, and is credited with inventing the sport of Inline sledge hockey. He was born in Crawley, Sussex but grew up in Rainhill, Merseyside and later resided in Hollym, East Riding of Yorkshire.

In March 2012 it was announced that Lloyd would be an Olympic torchbearer and would be carrying the Olympic torch through Scarborough.

Lloyd is an alumnus of Gateway College in Leicester and has been honoured by the college who have named an annual community sports award after him. Lloyd has passed his Olympic Torch to the college to inspire students and has a history of supporting grassroots sports as evidenced by his role as Vice Chair of Sport Birmingham, one of the 45 County Sports Partnerships that exist to support sport in England.

On 22 August 2015 Lloyd married Ruth Harvey on the ice at Widnes Ice Rink. The wedding was the first in the UK conducted at an ice rink and featured an ice hockey game as part of the celebrations.

It was announced in August 2016 that Lloyd was launching a brand of skating rinks called SK8Z with the first one based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire and which utilised a type of roller skate which replicated ice skates without the need for ice.

In 2004 Lloyd took up the sport of sledge hockey (a variant of ice hockey and a Paralympic sport) playing for the Kingston Kestrels Sledge hockey team. Lloyd was asked to train with the British Paralympic team early in 2005. In November 2005 Lloyd made his international debut as back-up goalkeeper against Italy in the Paralympic Qualifiers in Turin, Italy. Lloyd represented Great Britain at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin, the 2009 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships and the 2011 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships.

...
Wikipedia