Olympic gold medalist James Cracknell has announced he wants to run as an MEP for the South West at next year's elections.
The rower, who has two Olympic golds and has rowed across the Atlantic, plans to follow in the footsteps of fellow gold medallist and former Cornwall MP Lord Sebastian Coe with the career change into politics.
The athlete was left brain injured after a serious cycling accident in 2010 when he was hit by a petrol tanker as he attempted to cross the US by bike, rowing, running and swimming in 16 days. But he dismissed concerns this would affect his ability to hold office.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "People will ask am I capable to do it after my accident. I ask myself that, but I don't want to live in a society where people impose ceilings on you. We shouldn't be setting ourselves those sorts of limits. I just want to go for it and see it through. If I make a bad politician so be it, but it could quite easily be that I would have made a bad politician before the accident."
The South West of England constituency of the European Parliament comprises Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire, as well as Gibraltar.
Six MEPs currently represent the region: three Conservatives, two from the UK Independence Party and one Liberal Democrat.
Mr Cracknell revealed his political ambition while speaking at the Telegraph-backed Hay Festival. Mr Cracknell, who won Olympic Gold medals in the coxless fours, in Athens in 2004 and Sydney four years earlier, said he wanted to repay the support he received from the public by arguing the case for a better EU deal for Britain.
