The 25-year-old from Cambridge, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, winner of six medals at the last two Paralympics in Athens in 2004 and Beijing 2008 respectively, has revealed that she fears new classification rules could prevent athletes with severe impairments from competing.

"The way I see it is that disability/Paralympic sport has, over the years, significantly moved away from the foundations on which it was built," said Williamson in an interview published in the Cambridge News.

"Obviously, the development of the Paralympic Movement is fantastic.

"However, less and less lower classes are coming into our sports, meaning the events are being dropped, giving lower classes fewer reasons to develop their talents.

"Moreover, athletes with more severe impairments are less likely to be represented in the media, offering no motivation to young disabled people who may consider competing."

Williamson, who won three medals at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Championships in Eindhoven last month, including one gold, used her own experience as an example.

She claimed that when she joined Britain's swimming team nearly ten years ago there were eight lower-class category swimmers involved but now there is only her and Jim Anderson.

Swimming is graded, with S1 more severely impaired than S10, for instance.

Williamson competes in the S3 category.

"I feel that this has built up to such an extent that the future of disability swimming, and sports in general, is looking pretty bleak for people who would be classified as S1 to S5," she told the Cambridge News

"With the significant lack of media interest, people are not being shown that it is possible to compete even if they are more severely impaired.

"I think in order for the situation to change there needs to be a change in attitude on several levels.

"Firstly, from the media.

"On a general level I think there is somewhat of a fear in relation to addressing disability as people are unsure of how to go about it.

"Secondly, children may watch Paralympic sport but not see people with their level of impairment, and therefore may be unaware that they could even compete in sport, let alone at high levels.

"Thirdly, not only are children unaware of the opportunities or potential, neither are parents or teachers and coaches."

Williamson,who is currently studying for a masters degree in disability studies at Leeds University, admits that she was fortunate to be given the opportunity to take up the sport.

"Competitive sport, or sport in general, is not a notion that is often considered for or with people with severe impairments," she said.

"I personally never considered taking up sport until I got to secondary school, where there was already a student with my level of impairment who already swam at a high level.

"I think frequently, certainly in my case, until people see others like themselves achieving big things, the aspirations and dreams will not have even entered their heads, which is why the general media situation is so potent.

"It is very difficult for lower-class athletes to train alongside able-bodied athletes as things have to be tailored to suit their needs and abilities. 

"This makes it hard for people to build up their skills or talents as there is a shortage of clubs, teachers and coaches equipped with the knowledge or drive to work in these areas of sport. 

"Therefore, the ability to direct potential athletes in the necessary directions is limited."

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