It has been a pleasure to be in the recent company of two of sport’s most formidable females, especially at a time when the Women’s Movement is celebrating 100 years of fighting for equality.

Both have done their bit to put women to the forefront of British sport, one as the most successful Paralympian of all time and the other by winning a Winter Olympics gold medal in one of the most dangerous pursuits on Earth - or rather, ice.

First, it was a fascinating tete-a-tete, with Dame (soon to be Baroness) Tanni Grey-Thompson in London, where she is to become even more of a regular visitor following her elevation to the House of Lords as a ‘People’s Peer’. Then, it was down to Bath for a chat with Britain’s latest sporting sweetheart, Amy Williams.

Have wheelchair will travel has always been the delightful Tanni’s maxim, and we spoke after she had spent part of her day chairing a commission on the future of women’s sport, one of the many commitments that keeps her frantically busy since her retirement from the track three years ago.

But it was her future role as a Peer which intrigued me. She should be wrapping the ermine cloak around her at the end of this month, surprisingly having elected to sit as a cross-bencher, despite being an ardent Labour supporter all her life. She explained that this wasn’t an easy decision.

"My political views are left of centre but I think there are a lot of advantages of being a cross-bencher because you can vote with your heart, and in any case, I believe sport should be non-political. My passions are sport, women in sport and disabled people, and they kind of end up not being political, so I can put a bit of a different spin on it. I am not going to go in there and start speaking on things that I have no previous experience of but I am an ex-athlete, I am a mum and I have a disability so all that combines to give a different perspective.

"Health is one debate that immediately jumps out. And not just regarding the many problems regarding disability [she has been in a wheelchair since she was seven having been born with spina bifida]. Change also needs to be instigated in issues ranging from assisted suicide to care n the home and the legacy of London 2012.

"It was a deep desire to help make positive changes that first drove me into politics as a student [she has a degree in political sciences from Loughborough University] and this still burns as bright as ever. I’ve had many challenges in life and sport but going into the House of Lords is probably the greatest ever.

"It was one of those things that I’d always hoped I would have the opportunity to do but I never thought it would happen. When you are offered the chance, you can’t say, ‘Oh, that’s nice but can I do it five years please?’ I am very excited about it and slightly nervous."

Born 40 years ago in Cardiff, Dame Tanni (pictured), collected an unparalleled 11 Paralympic golds, set 30 world records and won six London Marathons. The First Lady of Paralympic sport is now the second lady of sport to sit in the house Lords, following UK Sport chair Sue (now Baroness) Campbell. who like her is known to have Labour leanings, as a cross-bencher. 

"I know Sue quite well and I am hoping I can learn a lot from her. I am still on a learning curve. I start to giggle when I hear someone call me Baroness Grey-Thompson."

She adds: "There are lots of exciting things happening with the sporting issues I am involved in at the moment, especially the women’s commission. Obviously there’s a long way to go before there is total equality in sport, but I think it is a fight we are winning, absolutely. There is some great stuff going on. 

"Amy Williams has struck a great blow for women’s sport, hasn’t she? I watched her compete and saw her interview afterwards. 

"She was so lovely, so refreshing.  It was amazing to see the excitement on her face.  She is a ready-made role model. She is so courageous in what seems a slightly bonkers event - and I mean that in a nice way. It’s so dangerous, I can’t even imagine what it must be like going down at that speed.  I cried a bit I have to say, when she was presented with the medal. I always get really emotional at these times."

The people of Bath were getting pretty emotional too as they gave a hero’s welcome to the 27-year-old Queen of Speed and the skeleton in her cupboard named Arthur last week. Riding in triumph through her home city in an open top bus with thousands cheering all the way may not be quite as hazardous as hurtling headlong down a deadly refrigerated ice tube high in the Rockies at 90mph but Amy reckoned it was even more exhilarating. This unspoiled, unpretentious daredevil is the very  essence of what Britain wants an Olympic champion go be. Let’s hope she stays as sweet as she is.  

"Being on the bus was just a fantastic day for me," she told me. "I  was  amazed just how many people turned up, it seemed the whole city came together and lined the streets. It was crazy, I never thought it would be like this. I am not used to all this fuss."

But she knows she will have to get used to it. She’ll be on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross this week and there have been invitations from Blue Peter and A Question of Sport. "It’s all a bit out of my comfort zone really but I know I have to do it. I’m taking it all with a pinch of salt."

There is no side to this slider. What you see is very much what you get. When we last met in Bath a year ago, she said she had no boyfriend and was looking for a "rich Argentine polo player"  Well, she has settled for a not-so-rich Czech bob-sledder, 32-year-old  Petr Narovec, now unemployed  after finishing his Olympic  contract.



She may have found fame but she knows it is unlikely she will ever find fortune. "I’ve read through all my cuttings and some of the papers are saying how much money I’m going to make. But honestly, I don’t think I will. This is not a sport where you make piles of money. No-one gets rich. You do it because you love it. I certainly haven’t got any money in my pocket yet and we’ll have to wait and see if any sponsorship deals come though. I’d love a car and I’d be more than happy to splash sponsorship over the side."

But for Amy and Arthur, what a bleak mid-winter games it would have been for Team GB. The curlers couldn’t do it (no doubt there’ll be some sweeping changes there), neither could the Kerrs. But Curly-Wurly came up with the goods and the gold and now her life, like her sport, really is in the fast lane.

She and Tanni should get together to compare notes. One of Tanni’s other involvements is as a member of the Sports Honours Committee, which ensures gongs go to those who deserve them. You can be sure the name of Amy Williams will be high on that list when they next meet.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics