Executive Mayor of Mansfield Andy Abrahams met world paracanoe champion Charlotte Henshaw today to personally congratulate her on winning two gold medals at the Paris Para Games.
The Mayor presented Charlotte with a bouquet during a visit to Mansfield Museum where she was meeting other inspirational women - members of the museum’s therapeutic Art Power group which has been running for the past two years. She stayed for the duration of the group meeting and took part in collage work. One of the members of the group wrote and read poem at the event and the poem was also presented to Charlotte.
Charlotte said: “It was fantastic to spend time with the Art Power group today. The resilience of these ladies is amazing and it was a privilege and pleasure to meet them and hear how art and the power of communal sisterhood is helping them rebuild their confidence and self-belief and helping to get their lives back into a happy and fulfilling place.
“I was also thrilled to meet the Mayor and receive his warm congratulations for my successes at the Paris Para Games. Mansfield has always been behind me 100% over the years and it means a lot to have that support from my home town.”
Mayor Andy said: “I was delighted to meet with Charlotte. She is such a great model of an inspiration for everyone in Mansfield – and she keeps on winning. She already has the Freedom of Mansfield and a swimming pool named after her so it feels a bit humble to present her with flowers but I wanted her to know that we are still following and cheering her continuing sporting achievements and we hope there are still more to come.”
Charlotte, 37, who is Mansfield born and bred, has multiple sporting accolades to her name both as a paracanoeist and previously as a paraswimmer.
As well as her two Paralympic gold medals in August, she has been crowned world champion in the Women's Paracanoe KL2 category for six years in a row. She is also the current world champion in the Women's Paracanoe VL3 category, a title she has successfully defended four times in the last five years the competition has run.
In 2022 she was awarded an MBE for services to canoeing and in 2016 she was awarded Freedom of Mansfield after an equally successful sporting career as a paraswimmer.
Charlotte was was born with bilateral tibial hypoplasia which meant her lower legs were under-developed. This resulted in her legs being amputated above the knee when she was 18 months old.
Despite this setback in life, Charlotte has never allow her disability to hold her back. At age 12, she began her swimming training with the Nova Centurion Swimming Club at the Mansfield’s Water Meadows complex where the competition pool is now named after her and her fellow Mansfield Paralympians Sam and Ollie Hynd.
Charlotte first represented Great Britain as a paraswimmer at the age of 16 and first joined the Team GB Paralympic squad for the Beijing Games in 2008. She has represented her country at every Para Olympic Games since: London (2012); Rio de Janeiro (2016); Toyko (2021) and Paris (2024). The last two games were as a paracanoist after successfully switching sports in 2017.