Private healthcare company Bupa and photographer Annie Leibovitz have unveiled a series of portraits showing what health means to six Paralympic and Para athletes in the countdown to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in August.
Bupa is the Official Healthcare Partner to the National Paralympic Associations in the UK, Spain, Australia, Chile, Mexico and Poland.
It has partnered with Leibovitz to launch the ‘Picture of Health’ campaign, to celebrate diverse health stories, launched 100 days ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
The campaign follows new research from Bupa that reveals that four out of five Brits feel that the portrayal of health, and what it means to be healthy, is often misrepresented in society and the media. Over a third of people believe that health is frequently presented as a one-size-fits-all approach.
While just over half of people recognize that looking at “role models” can inspire us to make changes to improve our health and build self-belief, one in four wants to see more fitness abilities and body types portrayed positively in the media.
Leibovitz is known for her raw and authentic portraits, and she has now turned her camera on captivating people that celebrate health in all forms.
Meet the athletes…
Richard Whitehead, UK
Richard Whitehead MBE is a gold medallist, and the first double through-knee amputee to run the length of the UK. Whitehead ran 40 marathons in 40 days for charity. Two Paralympic 200m gold medals later, he founded the Richard Whitehead Foundation, to create social change and use the power of sport for the benefit of disabled people.
In April 2024, he set a new world record in the London Marathon for athletes with bilateral knee replacements.
Whitehead said of the project:
“Health is determination. My greatest achievement was accepting my disability… not as a negative, as an opportunity to show people that anything is possible.”
The image subtlety references the famous 1953 image by Marc Riboud of a man painting the Eiffel Tower.
Róża Kozakowska, Poland
A shot put and club throw Paralympian, after a tick bite attacked her nervous system, Kozakowska developed articular and cerebral neuroborreliosis, impacting her coordination.
She won gold at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, setting a new world record, and was named 2021 Disabled Athlete of the Year.
She said, “Health is strength to overcome difficulties that seemed impossible at first. In my case, impossible doesn’t exist.”
Curtis McGrath, Australia
A Para canoeist and former soldier, McGrath lost both his legs in a mine blast while serving in Afghanistan. Less than two years after the event that took his legs, he broke a world record time and won the 200m VL2 world title in Moscow, Russia. He has since won 10 gold medals, and one silver, including consecutive golds at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
He said:
“Health is independence. Being happy, fit and doing the things I want to do when I can. And that to me means a lot."
Emmanuel Oyinbo-Coker, UK
Born with a rare condition called phocomelia, which means he is missing the forearm of his left arm, sprinter Oyinbo-Coker won gold at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai in 2022, aged 21. He went on to win the men’s 100m final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
He said:
"Health is energy… both mentally and physically.”
Sara Andrés Barrio, Spain
A double below-the-need amputee, Andrés won her first medal at the World Para Athletics Championships only six years after her car accident in 2011. She now competes in long jump. Relay, and sprint events, specializing in the 100m.
She said:
"Health is fullness or tranquillity. Health makes me feel calm, happy and gives me desire to live more fully.”
The image again channels a famous image of Paris - this time Elliott Erwitt's 1989 black-and-white image of man leaping with an umbrella in the same location.
Mariana Zúñiga, Chile
Zúñiga is a Paralympic Archer who was born with Myelomeningocele, a form of spina bifida. She was the first Chilean archer to participate in the Paralympic Games, an achievement celebrated by her country, and then the entire continent, when she brought home a silver medal and became the first archer from the Americas to win in the compound open women’s category.
"Health is self-belief. Being in a mental and physical state which allows me to develop and grow as a person. This means I can be at my best in both life and my sport and be confident”.
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