Twenty years after beginning her career in the swimming pool, 11-time Paralympic champion Sarah Storey has been named a Dame in the Queen's New Year Honours list.
The 35-year-old from Disley, Cheshire, won five Paralympic titles as a swimmer, including two as a 14-year-old in Barcelona, and now has six as a cyclist following her haul of four titles from four events at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
"Wow, I am speechless but incredibly honoured and extremely proud to be able to accept the DBE," said Storey, who recently announced she was pregnant.
Storey married tandem pilot rider Barney Storey in 2007. He rides as a sighted pilot for blind or partially sighted athletes in tandem track cycling events.
She continued: "I never expected any additional awards after my sporting success.
"I love competing for my country and that is a huge honour in itself. Now to be a dame is beyond anything I could have ever imagined and I cannot thank my family, friends, coaches and support staff over all the years enough for their devotion in helping me to follow the path of becoming the best athlete I can possibly be."
Storey, who was born with a partly formed left hand, excelled as a swimmer across four Games under her maiden name Bailey.
But it is since switching to the bike, following a series of ear infections, that she has cemented her place as a sporting great. She won two titles in Beijing in 2008, her first Paralympics on a bike, and in 2010 competed for England at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi to become, alongside archer Danielle Brown, the first athletes with impairments to compete in the open competition.
Storey was in contention for the Olympics until last December, when fierce competition for places meant she was narrowly squeezed out of the team pursuit squad which went on to win Olympic gold.
She had plenty to keep her occupied, though, and Storey was peerless in claiming victory in the individual pursuit - Britain's first gold of a home Paralympics - and 500metres time-trial on the track and wins in the road time-trial and road race at Brands Hatch.
