Alison Patrick

Patrick was born in 1987 with albinism. She was blind at birth and gained some sight afterwards, but has never had full vision. Moreover, she suffers from nystagmus, which causes eye movement, and her albinism makes her, and particularly her eyes, sensitive to light. Patrick worked as a physiotherapist at Victoria Hospital in Dunfermline until she moved to Loughborough.[2]

Paratriathlon became an Olympic sport at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Patrick took the silver medal in the PT5 class behind Katie Kelly of Australia.[1] Her guide for the race was Hazel Smith who is a Durham Engineer. They had trained for two years before the Olympics. They started out with a coffee together and went on to going on tandem bike rides together.[3] Smith was already a tri-athlete having been reserve for the team at 2014 Commonwealth games.[4]

Patrick was voted "West Fife's Sports Personality of the Year ".[5]

In March 2017 she competed at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles. She teamed up with Helen Scott (cyclist) and they gained two more medals. Their tandem came third in the 1km time trial and they gained a silver at the tandem sprint behind Thornhill and Hall.[5]