Former lacrosse player turned pistol shooter, Issy Bailey, will make her third consecutive appearance at the Paralympic Games in Paris, France this week after being selected to represent Team GB earlier this year.

Bailey, a former pupil at Rendcomb College, will once again compete in the P3 pistol shooting event meaning she’ll take on a mix-gendered field from a 25m distance with a .22 pistol.

Bailey’s event falls under the SH1 classification of shooting which means athletes are able to support their firearm without assistance.

Initially a talented hockey player, Bailey first picked up a lacrosse stick aged 13 when it was the spring term sport at her new school.

She took to the new sport amazingly well, making Rendcomb’s first team, where she won a school’s competition, before securing a spot on the county team.

After a vehicle collision in 2013 left her with a spinal cord injury, however, Bailey left hockey and lacrosse behind and took up pistol shooting during her recovery at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Since then, Bailey’s rise to the top has been nothing short of meteoric and, in 2016, she competed at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she finished 14th, narrowly missing out on the final, and a chance to win a medal, by just five points.

At the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Bailey was Team GB’s sole shooting representative when she competed in both the P2 Women’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 and P3 Mixed 25m Pistol SH1 events finishing 18th and 21st respectively.

This year, as Bailey takes to the field in Paris, France, the 30-year-old will once again be the only shooting representative for Great Britain.

Watch Issy Bailey in action on Monday 2 September on Channel 4 from 8am.

Schedule (2 September)