Suzanna Hext starts every day by listing three things she’s grateful for. Sometimes it’s the same for several days straight, and often it’s simple, everyday pleasures.

But it perfectly demonstrates her approach to life. In a riding accident in 2012 she suffered a Spinal Cord Injury, which paralysed her from the waist down. She is also profoundly deaf and has required a double cochlear implant, while regular infections and asthma have hampered her freedom to train and compete.

Despite everything, Suzanna, 35, has three European dressage titles to her name and became a para-swimming world champion in 2023.

“There were a few times things shouldn’t have been possible – on paper,” she says in something of an understatement. Gratitude and ambition are two driving forces in her life, and despite a near-hour long interview it’s easiest to convey her personality with two quotes: “I feel like one of the lucky ones,” and “Life’s pretty damn amazing.”

Before her accident Suzanna was a keen sportsperson, riding and running regularly. When, in a freak incident, her horse reared up and landed on her, then rolled back over her body, she lost all movement and sensation from the waist down. The accident could have killed her and, in her own words, made her think “life was over.”

She entered a deep rut. “I couldn’t see that I would ever be truly happy again,” she says today.

Just over a month later the Paralympics began, and Suzanna watched from her hospital bed. “I was watching all those athletes that had either acquired injuries or had a disability from birth and they were absolutely smashing it despite their disability. For me, seeing them and nothing holding them back showed there was a whole world out there still.

“Seeing them made me realise my life wasn’t over. It wasn’t just about the Paralympics. Watching that gave me hope that there was a whole world out there still for me.”

‍

Suzanna gradually turned her attention to para-sport, but to do so she first had to overcome a gut-wrenching prediction.

“My surgeon said: ‘Never, no way [can you ride again].’ I said: ‘Watch me.’ I remember it really vividly because my heart just sank. Part of me was like: I want to prove you wrong.”

So she started taking a saddle in to physio and, despite a series of complications, returned to horse-back two years later. By 2017 Suzanna was preparing for her first European Championships, at which she won three gold medals. Five years after her fall, the competition marked a major milestone.

“That week I remember suddenly being like: ‘Oh my god. Life isn’t over. Wow!’” she says. “I never believed I would be happy after my accident, or not to the extent I was before.”

Suzanna started swimming that same year and went full-time at the end of 2019. By 2023, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, an aborted championships in 2022 due to medical complications, and being in a high-dependency unit just weeks before, she won the 50m freestyle S5 in Manchester.

Having gone from a near-death accident to being told she would never ride again, Suzanna’s ability to just compete, yet alone medal on the global stage, is a remarkable feat. She has been dealt two major riding accidents (including once as a teenager), multiple infections and surgeries, asthma attacks at the Tokyo Paralympics, and hearing loss.

Now, thanks to cochlear implants and her hearing dog, Kimmy, she has greater freedom and support in both daily life and training. Her inherent gratitude, of course, shines through.

“My journey has been a rollercoaster, to say the least, with a lot of hard, hard times,” Suzanna reflects. “I’d be lying if I said there haven’t been times where I’ve thought: ‘Is this even possible?’ But the World Championships made me realise that this is and I want to give it everything in Paris.

“It’s really hard to put into words what the last 12 years have been like. There have been some phenomenal highs, highs I couldn’t have imagined. But there have been moments of despair. I’ve been very, very ill over those years.

“I think almost realising you’re one of the lucky ones makes you realise you want to get as much as you can out of life. I want to squeeze out everything I can.

“Looking back, it’s been the most amazing journey. I wouldn’t change it for the world in many ways. Having the lows helps you appreciate the highs a bit more. Also I appreciate everything I do that bit more because I’m lucky to be here today.

“Life’s pretty damn amazing. If you really think about it, what we have is incredible. It helps me to focus on that.”