TRIPLE Olympic gold-medallist Pete Reed is paralysed from the chest down following a spinal stroke.

The former Oxford Blue, who won gold at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, revealed the news in an Instagram post yesterday.

Reed, who retired in 2018, said: "There is a very small chance I will make no recovery and a very small chance I will make a full recovery.

"Much more likely it will be somewhere in between. To what extent depends on the extent of the damage (which we can't see) and how well I rehab."

He added: "It was in the middle of my spine so I'm currently paralysed beneath my chest.

"My arms are still strong and my brain is still as average as it ever was."

The 38-year-old member of the Leander Club in Henley rowed in two Boat Races for the University of Oxford and won five World Rowing Championships.

Reed, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was awarded an MBE in 2017.