Queen's Birthday Honours 2022: Paralympian champion Holly Robinson 'over the moon' with honour

Holly Robinson after winning gold medal in the Javelin F46 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Photo / Photosport

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

Ms Holly Irene Robinson

For services to athletics

There is more to throwing the javelin than winning medals and breaking records for Holly Robinson.

The long-awaited gold medal she won in the F46 javelin last year's Tokyo Paralympics was certainly a highlight.

Her silver medal at the Rio Games, as well as her collection of medals from world championships and Commonwealth Games, rate highly too.

However, for the 27-year-old Dunedin athlete, who was born with a shortened left arm, her motivation is also to show a disability does not have to hold her back.

"There's a couple of reasons why I do my sport," she said. "One is because I love it. I truly love athletics and what sport gives me as a person.

"But there's this thing that, I was always looked upon on a sports field as very different to other people. In a way, me doing these things and going to the Paralympics and achieving is a way of showing people that anything is possible.

"If you want something and you worked hard for it, it can be there for you. I had a lot of people that didn't believe in me when I was younger, because of my arm.

"Sport is a way I can show people I can do what I want to do. I've worked hard, it hasn't been an easy road, that's for sure.

"But last year I got there. Now I've got new goals I'm looking for and I'm working towards those and hopefully I get there as well."

Robinson said some days she looks at her gold medal and it still did not seem real to have won it.

However, she felt it represented "so much hard work" from both herself and her support staff.

She said she was "over the moon" when she found she had received her honour.

Robinson is in Australia for the Oceania Championships and hopes to defend her title at the Paris Paralympics in 2024.