Bush aiming for Paralympic joy at third time of asking

Taekwondo's Matt Bush is refusing to consider this "third time lucky" until he is finally able to fight at a Paralympic Games this summer.

Bush is one of three people selected for the Great Britain taekwondo team alongside Beth Munro and Amy Truesdale for Paris 2024.

The Games, which run from 28 August to 8 September, includes Para-taekwondo as a sport for the second time following its debut at Tokyo 2020.

Munro and Truesdale fought in Tokyo – the former winning silver, GB's first taekwondo medal at the Paralympics, while Truesdale claimed bronze in the +58kg category.

Bush was selected to be alongside them in Japan, but suffered a knee injury shortly before the Games and was ruled out.

It was the second Games he missed because of injury. Bush had thought his first appearance at a Paralympics would come in 2016 when he was Britain's top male thrower in the F46 javelin, but a shoulder injury ruled him out of Rio.

He subsequently switched to taekwondo and has won two world titles – and now the 35-year-old is ready for the biggest stage of all, although he is taking nothing for granted.

"I don't know how lucky it's going to be until I get there,” he told BBC Sport. "I was close in Tokyo - I qualified, got selected and was right on the doorstep [before injury], so hopefully I get to go this time."

He isn't letting concerns about his fitness affect preparations, having won a bronze medal at the European Championships in May.

"It's just part of sport," he said of injuries. "They can happen at any time, when it doesn't have such a big impact - then sometimes it does."

Bush, who qualified automatically for the Games as one of the top six-ranked male athletes in the world in the +80kg category, says family helped keep him level-headed through his previous Paralympic disappointments.

He still works for the family business distributing cheese and other dairy products around Wales, and also helped out with food deliveries around his native Carmarthenshire during the Covid lockdown.

"It's really important to have things outside the sport, people can make the mistake of having their identity in the sport, then you don't have any frame of reference," he said.

"You have ups and downs in your career, when things are down then everything is down. I have some constants, which from a mental health perspective is very positive.

"I have a perspective that nothing is a given. It's good I get to train today, it will be great if I get to the Paralympics, but everything is good anyway."

Bush says a few close friends and family will come to support him in Paris – although they will be dwarfed by the fleet being brought by team-mate Munro.

Around 60 relatives, friends and well-wishers from Munro’s native Liverpool will be travelling to the French capital to support the world number one in the -65kg category, as she makes up for lost time after the 2020 Games took place without fans because of coronavirus restrictions.

"My family have all got T-shirts with my face on them," 30-year-old Munro said. "Tokyo was different, but we made the most of it. With Paris being so close to home, that will be the winning edge.

"I think I had to book about 55 of them tickets, it was a lot of emails, contact numbers, money to get off people. My auntie helped sort it, she was amazing."

Aside from bringing half of Merseyside to Paris, Munro hopes that these Games will provide Para-taekwondo with the platform it missed out on in Tokyo amid empty stands and inconvenient timings for UK audiences.

Unlike Olympic taekwondo, points are not scored in Para-taekwondo for punches or head shots because some of the athletes have fewer methods to defend themselves; Bush, Munro and Truesdale are all missing one arm, while some of the competitors have none.

But ultimately the Games are about showcasing the best of Paralympic sport – and for Truesdale, it is about getting a gold medal to top a stellar career which has featured three world titles.

The 35-year-old, who also won gold at the Europeans earlier in 2024, said: "I've been doing this a very long time, it is the last medal I need to achieve.

"I am desperate to win it, hopefully I can get the gold this time."