The Paralympic champion brewing beer for gold goal

If Dan Pembroke isn't at the track, you will probably find him at his allotment.

It is where the first seed of an idea grew into something far greater; an initial enjoyment of growing hops and dabbling with home brew kits has bloomed into an actual beer with his name on the can.

In the lead-up to last year's Paralympics, Pembroke started brewing 'Paris Gold', as a physical representation of what he wanted and ultimately would go on to achieve in the French capital.

Now Pembroke - a two-time Paralympic and world champion in the F13 javelin, for athletes with a visual impairment - has a new brew in the works that he hopes can have the same effect for his compatriots heading to the colder climates of the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympics in Italy.

"Two months before going to Paris, my new coach, John Trower, was talking about visualisation and manifestation, these things that he deemed very powerful in sport," Pembroke told BBC Sport.

"I'd never really dabbled with visualisation, so I thought, what way could I make this unique to myself? How could I manifest what I want out in Paris?

"I want to get the gold medal, I want it to be in Paris, and I want to hold up a beer to celebrate what I've done."

After his success in Paris, Pembroke's home brewing caught the attention of a craft brewery, which has worked with the 34-year-old to produce it on a commercial scale.

His new Milan beer will be an Italian pilsner using West Coast hops, as a nod to the next summer Games in Los Angeles.

With plans for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions, he hopes to send batches to Italy for British athletes to enjoy after the Winter Games.

"I'm getting it out there and putting the message across about manifestation for them," Pembroke said.

"It's quite a wacky way to do it with beer and athletes, it's not something that normally goes together, but I think because of that it makes it stand out a little bit. And you've got to rock the boat a little bit sometimes to get eyes on you."

Because for Pembroke - who has only 10% vision having been diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition, retinitis pigmentosa, when he was six - it's not just about beer.

"This is about me talking in front of crowds of people in conferences, in hospitality, about accessibility for people with invisible disabilities like myself," he said.

"I go into a restaurant or a bar and I often get asked 'do you have any dietary requirements?'. But never have I been asked 'do you have any accessibility requirements?'.

"Often I can't be accommodated for. I want to change that space for invisible disabilities, and in particular, visual impairments."

Earlier in his athletics career, Pembroke was targeting the London 2012 Olympics before an elbow injury put paid to that dream.

After a seven-year break and with his eyesight deteriorating, he came to Para-sport in 2019. Within two years he was Paralympic champion, throwing a Paralympic record of 69.52m in Tokyo.

In Paris he reached new heights, breaking Uzbekistan's Aleksandr Svechnikov's seven-year world record with his third throw, before bettering that mark by more than three metres on his next effort with 74.49m to successfully defend his Paralympic crown.

A year on from that golden achievement, Pembroke's next task is defending the global title he won in both 2023 and 2024 at the Para-athletics World Championships in New Delhi, which get under way on Saturday.

As part of a 37-strong British contingent, external headed for India, he goes into the championships with "my hunger back", having struggled with the comedown from his Paralympic high.

"Paris was the pinnacle of my career so far," he said. "It's weird to adjust coming back down the other side, because you need to reset your goals and your ambitions of where you want to go in the future.

"Those four months after Paris were very odd and strange for me. I was having ups and downs, but a big roller coaster of emotions, trying to adjust to what I'd done and where I'm going next.

"It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, it was pretty difficult."

Sunshine is now on the horizon, however - Pembroke and his wife, Martina, will welcome their first baby in November.

The prospect of having his child trackside at the LA Paralympics in three years' time is providing added motivation for Pembroke to continue his work both in and out of athletics.

"I'm not getting any younger, and I want to make the most of how my body's feeling at the moment," he said.

"I think I have the potential to break the [world] record and go more than 75m. Leading up to LA, that's what I wanted to achieve.

"But when I do finally retire, and I'm not sure when that is yet, I want to have a wholesome feeling that I've done something good, not just from throwing javelins far, but I want to try and change the space in society that deals with visual impairment."