A swimming sensation whose talents were first spotted in Alsager has become an MBE after being named in the King’s New Year Honours.
Poppy Maskill, (19), who lives in Middlewich, was hailed as the most successful athlete at the 2024 summer paralympic games in Paris and swam to victory with three gold and two silver medals.
She was included in the King’s honours alongside fellow sporting star Keely Hodgkinson, who won gold in the 800m at the Paris Olympics, and Alan Hansen, for services to football and broadcasting.
National treasures Stephen Fry and Gareth Southgate were also listed to receive knighthoods.
Ben Maskill, Miss Maskill’s dad, said the family struggled to keep the accolade a secret after finding out weeks ago.
He said: “We had a letter from a Government office, so our initial thoughts were, ‘what have we done wrong?!’
“Then Poppy opened it, and we were told we had to keep it to ourselves.
“Poppy felt proud; it’s a good recognition of her achievements, but now she wants to concentrate on her training this year.”
He explained that a date had not yet been set for her to receive the medal, due to a backlog.
“We’ll get an appointment to go to one of the palaces in the next few months,” he said.
“Because the King has been ill, they are running behind.”
He told the Chronicle: “As a family, we are incredibly proud of her. She’s classed as S14, which means she has learning difficulties, as well as autism.
“It takes her longer to learn things and to understand training, so you can imagine the hard work and dedication she has to put in to get to the level she has. It’s harder for her to understand the coaching process, so she has to work that bit harder to get there.”
As well as earning gold medals in the S14 category for 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke and mixed 4 x 100m freestyle relay, she also set a world record in the 100m butterfly final – Great Britain’s first gold of the games.
She also won silver in the 200m freestyle S14 and in the 200m individual medley S14, making her Paralympic GB’s most successful athlete at the games.
Freedom
But not least of her achievements in 2024, was being awarded freedom of the town of Middlewich by the town council – Miss Maskill is only the fifth person to have been given the honour.
Mr Maskill said: “It was nice to get some local recognition. They put on a nice ceremony with a brass band, and there were speeches and a buffet. They went to some effort, so I think she was pleased with that.”
As the town’s youngest Freeman, Miss Maskill is now entitled to herd a flock of sheep through the town centre.
“Now we just need to find a flock of sheep!” Mr Maskill joked.
With no swimming pool in her hometown, the ambitious athlete trained at Alsager Leisure Centre’s pool and in Crewe before her talents were noticed and she moved on to Manchester Performance Centre.
Miss Maskill has kept ties with Alsager, where she is still registered with the swimming club.
Mr Maskill said: “She went to an awards ceremony in Alsager last month and handed out a few awards. She still sometimes represents them at one gala a year.”
Over the Christmas break, he said his daughter had been enjoying the festive season and visiting her boyfriend in Norwich, but that she was keen to get back to training for the world championships in September.
He said: “The qualifying event is in Singapore this year, so her ultimate goal is to qualify for that and do well, but nothing is guaranteed.
“She wants to put everything she has achieved this year behind her. She doesn’t want the added pressure of those achievements and the expectations to weigh on her, she just wants to push ahead with her training.
“It’s a hard sport, you have to work really hard to continue to do well.”
The World Para Swimming Championships qualifiers take place between 7th and 11th March.
(Photo: ParalympicsGB).
