WHAT did you say?" I ask, struggling to hear Tanni Grey-Thompson over the din. Britain's most accomplished disabled athlete may be talking from the privacy of her own home, but we may as well be in the back seat of a crowded school bus. Noise interrupts our conversation continuously. After hollering "pardon" for the fifth time, I eventually ask what she's up to.

"Straightening my hair and putting on my make-up, " she says, the din continuing. "I'm a dab hand at multitasking while on the phone. I'm always in a state of chaos." You would think the 37-year-old golden girl of British athletics would take a break after completing her final race two weeks ago, winning silver in the 200m at the Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

But old habits die hard, and this athlete just can't slow down. Despite retiring from competitive racing three days before we speak, she shows no sign of leisurely enjoying daytime TV yet. Already this week she's crammed in 10 interviews (a reduction on last week, she insists, when the figure neared 20). And tonight she's off to a charity dinner with Ian Botham, the former England cricket star. Hence the last-minute rush to get glammed up.

Hard work and endless energy, however, is the winning formula for Tanni, who was born with spina bifida and is now paralysed from the waist down. She's won 16 Paralympic medals ­ 11 of them gold ­ at five Paralympic Games, making her Britain's most successful Paralympian of all time. She's set more than 30 world records on the track and her medals range from 100m to marathon, including six consecutive London Marathon wins.

In recognition of her achievements, she was made an MBE in 1993, awarded the OBE in 1999 and made a Dame in the New Year's Honours list in 2005 for services to sport. In 2006, she was elected to the prestigious Laureus World Sports Academy, placing her alongside figures such as football hero Pele, basketball star Michael Jordan and tennis champ Boris Becker. And a 2003 BBC online poll voted her the third greatest Briton of all time behind Stephen Hawkins and Winston Churchill.

It's little wonder that the sporting world shed a collective tear when she announced her retirement in February.

Not only has Tanni secured Britain a place on the world sporting stage, but she also opened the public's eyes to disability sport. During her glittering career, she's seen a sea change in acceptance of disability sport.

"When I started people didn't believe you could have a disability and be a sportsperson. Disability sport got little coverage. Any coverage it did get was patronising and tokenistic. Now it's on TV. The public are more accepting of it as a legitimate sport, " she says.

"But there's still a long way to go.

Many disability sports, such as swimming, don't get any coverage.

And there are people who still see me as a small girl in a wheelchair, not an athlete. I did a phone-in on Radio Five Live recently. One caller insisted that a disabled person isn't really an athlete.

He thinks what I do is Mickey Mouse. I know I will never change his opinion.

"That attitude doesn't anger me, though. When I was growing up I was taught if someone had a problem with my disability, it wasn't my problem, but theirs. They're the ones missing out. I still apply that rule today." Now Tanni is turning her attention to nurturing talent. Earlier this month, she launched Deloitte Parasport, a nationwide initiative to encourage more people with disabilities to take up sport. The website, www. parasport. org. uk, will allow people with disabilities to discover the sporting options open to them locally ­ and, crucially, help them find out how to get financial support to kick-start their sporting career.

"It's hard to get started in sport, even without a disability. Finding support and clubs can be difficult. Yet if we want to perform well in disability sport in the future, particularly at the London Olympics in 2012, we need to make these available to young people now, " she says. "This is the first website of its kind. I also hope it will highlight gaps in resources and lead to more support." As Tanni can testify, professional sport is a tough career. Competing at world level demands time away from friends and family ­ at one point, she was away from home for more than seven months of the year. Not wanting totake time off from training was the reason Tanni and her husband took so long to get married.

"Eventually we got married and spent our honeymoon training, " she says. "Our hotel was 200 metres from the track." And she cites spending more time with her husband and fiveyear-old daughter as one of the main reasons behind her decision to retire.

While Britain awaits the next generation of disability sport stars, it seems any wannabes could use a tip or two from this veteran. So what is her advice for young people considering a career in sport?

"Find out what you want to do, and work hard. Often people tell you that you can't achieve things, especially when you're young. It can be easy to believe them. Don't. I've achieved things people doubted I could. Most of my achievements have been down to hard work and keeping focused, " she says.

"Be honest with yourself. If you tell people you're training hard, question if you really are giving your all. You can try to pull the wool over other people's eyes, but not your own." www. parasport. org. uk