Jamie Burdekin
by Educate Magazine February 9, 2014 · Latest Features
Crosby born and Paralympics GB squad member Jamie Burdekin took up wheelchair tennis after a car accident in 2000. Shortly after coming out of his spinal unit, Jamie was introduced to the sport through a wheelchair tennis session taking place in the Wirral and has played the sport seriously since 2005.
He is a two-time quad singles national champion and has become a crucial member of Britain’s quad team in the Invacare World Team Cup, the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis.
Jamie won his first major international quad singles title at the Queensland Open in Australia in 2008 and later that year he was competing for Great Britain in his third World Team Cup when he found out he had been selected to make his Paralympic Games debut in Beijing, where he went on to partner Peter Norfolk to the quad doubles bronze medal.
He was also a member of Great Britain’s World Team Cup team that won the quad title in 2009 before winning bronze in the same event in 2011 and silver this year. Jamie achieved his career high quad singles ranking of No. 5 in May 2009 and has firmly established himself inside the world’s top 10 since then.
My School:
I went to St George of England High School, Bootle, which is now a Specialist Engineering College
My Favourite Teacher:
That definitely would have to be Mr Wilson, he taught history but I liked him because he always talked about sport.
Favourite Subject at School:
I really enjoyed art and design, plus of course, PE.
Were you streetwise or a bit of a geek?
I was definitely streetwise.
My Favourite Childhood Band:
Without a doubt that has to be Oasis and they still are one of my favourites now.
My Favourite Extra-Curricular Activity:
Mostly socialising with my mates and the obligatory playing football.
Do you remember your first school crush?
To be perfectly honesty I can’t really remember any, and that’s the truth.
My Favourite Book:
I was and still am really interested in any biographies on any sports stars.
School Dinners:
Surprisingly I loved them, but I had to look for a clean plate though!
My Ambitions at School:
I always wanted to be a sports star, but if that didn’t work out I had a back-up plan of being an architect.
