The world in the palm of his hand

After winning a second Paralympic gold medal at Rio in 2016, Damien Seguin then took his combination of grit, strategic brilliance and infectious bonne humeur to the Vendée Globe. Whether you smiled at his Captain Hook stunt, marvelled at his ability to be always in the right place or had to pinch yourself when he crossed the line less than 24 hours after Charlie Dalin’s super-speedy Apivia, you will undoubtedly have been impressed by his journey. Having now bought the boat that eventually won the race in the hands of Yannick Bestaven, Seguin makes it clear to Jocelyn Blériot that he has no desire to be a Vendée Globe one-shot wonder

Let’s take inspiration from the website of Seguin’s charity, and get this out of the way: he was born without a left hand. But it’s not really about that – not in the ‘look at me beating the odds’ sort of way, no. It’s about character and a relentless determination to excel, while fighting against all manners of misconceptions about disability.