Inspirational Athletes
Corie Mapp was born in Barbados 1978. After leaving school at 16, Mapp served with the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Barbados Defence Force Reserves. In 2005, he joined the Household Cavalry and from 2006-2008 he served in London with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, becoming the first ever Barbadian to ride on The Queen’s Birthday Parade.
In 2008, he was posted as a combat vehicle driver to the Household Cavalry’s armoured reconnaissance regiment in Windsor, the Household Cavalry Regiment, which was deployed to Afghanistan in late 2009. While on active duty there in early 2010 he lost both legs when, under enemy fire, his armoured vehicle ran over an IED. Mapp was unconscious for two weeks but within a month of his injury was starting to walk on prosthetic legs.
During his time in recovery and rehabilitation, Mapp competed successfully in athletics and sitting volleyball for Team GB in the 2013 Warrior Games, and the first two Invictus Games. He also played cricket for Hampshire County Cricket disabilities team, winning the championship in 2012 and 2016. In 2013 Mapp was introduced to para bobsleigh. Initially he was reluctant to participate in this very dangerous sport, but quickly discovered that he was a natural mono bobsled pilot, winning the first ever Para Bobsleigh World Cup in 2018. In addition to the 2018 result, Mapp won bronze in the 2017 World Championship, silver in the 2018 event and won the European Championship in 2019/20. Currently in the top 3 in the world, in the 2021/22 ISBF season Mapp won the bronze medal in the World Cup, the silver medal in the European Championship and was placed 4th in the World Championship.
Looking forward, Mapp plans to end the 2022/23 international para bobsleigh season once again on the winner’s podium and, assuming para bobsleigh is admitted to the Winter Paralympics, to win Paralympic Gold for the United Kingdom in 2026. Not content with that, Mapp has recently joined Team GB’s sitting volleyball squad to train for and compete in the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris.
In 2020 Mapp joined Wilshire Police, as a fulltime Police Community Support Officer and he has recently been selected for training as a Police Constable. Juggling his police duties with fitness training and international competitions at an elite level remains a challenge, but has been made easier by the encouragement and support he receives from his superior officers, who recognise the value of sport – particularly elite sport – to personal and professional development.
Corie Mapp resides with his family in Swindon. His autobiography Black Ice was published in October 2021, and a made-for-subscription-TV documentary of his sporting career will be broadcast online in the autumn of this year.
Commenting on his life, Corie Mapp said: “I have faced many challenges in my life. I could not have overcome them without the support of my family, my friends, my colleagues and sport. But the biggest challenge of all, and my on-going number one ambition, is not to be a para sport champion but to be the best dad I can be to my three daughters.”
