​Borders Paralympians Samantha Kinghorn and Stephen Clegg tell of pride and joy after royal medal handovers

​​Gordon’s Kinghorn, currently based in Nantwich in Cheshire, and Newcastleton’s Clegg, living in Edinburgh nowadays, were both named in King Charles III’s 2025 new years honours list for services to athletics and swimming respectively.

Wheelchair-racer Kinghorn was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to athletics, following on from being made a Member of the British Empire in 2022, and Clegg was made an MBE for services to swimming.

The former was presented with her latest medal by the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, at Buckingham Palace in London last Thursday and the latter was given his by the King, 76, at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

Kinghorn won five medals at last year’s French Paralympics – a T53 100m gold and silvers for 400m, 800m, 1,500m and 4x100m universal relay – and Clegg sgtruck gold twice, at S12 100m backstroke, setting a new world record in process, and 100m butterfly.

That followed the pair, both 29, also winning medals at 2021’s Paralympics in Japan, Kinghorn, coached by Ian Mirfin, a bronze for T53 100m and Clegg, coached by Mat Trodden, a silver for S12 100m butterfly and bronzes for S12 100m backstroke and freestyle.

Kinghorn described being made an officer of the OBE as a “cherry on top of the cake”.

“It’s amazing,” she told the Press Association news agency. “It’s such a strange thing.

“I guess in sport you train every day hoping that one day you’ll win a medal and you can kind of see that happening, but to actually be honoured, it doesn’t even seem achievable until it happens.

“To know that other people are watching you and they want to give you something for your achievements is quite nice.

“Paris was incredible. I went to Tokyo and won my first Paralympic medal in front of a completely empty stadium, which was actually genuinely heartbreaking, but to go to Paris and have a full stadium and all my friends and family there was incredible, and to win my first Paralympic gold medal and then to be honoured was a cherry on top of the cake.”

Former Earlston High School pupil Kinghorn’s plans for this year include competing in further marathons following taking part in London’s in April, including one in Sydney in August.

“I’m more just doing it for fun this year,” she said. “I have been under so much pressure – I’ve been doing this sport at this level since I was 17 – so I want to do something where there’s no pressure and it really doesn’t matter, just more to enjoy sport again.”

Stockport-born Clegg said he considers being made an MBE as a “huge honour”.

“Some people go their entire lives never receiving anything close to this, so to receive an MBE is a really special thing, and it gives me a lot of pride to know that I’ve been recognised by my country in this way.

“It puts a spotlight on not just the sport as a whole but sport for the disabled community.”

He was one of two swimmers presented with medals by the visiting monarch this week, the other being Duncan Scott, Scotland’s most-decorated Olympian, with eight medals to his name.