Dame Sarah Storey has been a Paralympic swimmer, a Paralympic cyclist, a team owner, a transport commissioner and, for four weeks this autumn, a sequin-wearing contestant on Strictly Come Dancing 2026. With 19 Paralympic gold medals to her name, she is the most successful British Paralympian ever. But para-sport is not known for footballer-sized pay packets, so plenty of viewers are wondering: what is Sarah Storey’s net worth, and how does she make her money?
What is Sarah Storey’s net worth?
Unifresher estimates Sarah Storey’s net worth at around £1.5 million in 2026, within a likely range of £1 million to £2.5 million.
Here’s how we got there. Storey has been an elite athlete for more than 30 years, but for most of that time her main income would have come from UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded athlete awards. These awards are designed to cover living and training costs while athletes chase medals, not to make anyone rich. On top of that, a career this long and this successful brings in sponsorship, prize money, appearance fees and plenty of paid speaking work, especially after her four golds at London 2012 made her a household name.
Since 2022 she has also had a regular income from public life. A Greater Manchester Combined Authority committee paper shows she was originally contracted as Active Travel Commissioner for two days a week at a rate of £500 a day, which works out at roughly £50,000 a year before tax. Add in TV work, including her 2026 Strictly fee (the BBC doesn’t publish contestant fees), and you have a steady but not spectacular set of income streams.
Against that, running a cycling team is famously expensive, and Storey and her husband have funded women’s teams for more than a decade. Taking her likely career earnings, tax, team costs and the value of the family home in Cheshire into account, we think around £1.5 million is a fair estimate. As always, the exact figure is only known to her and her accountant.
Who is Sarah Storey?
Sarah Storey (née Bailey) was born on 26 October 1977 in Manchester. She was born without a functioning left hand, after her arm became entangled in the umbilical cord in the womb, and she started competing in para-swimming as a child.
She is married to Barney Storey, a former Paralympic tandem pilot and coach, and the couple have two children. They live in Disley, Cheshire. She was made an MBE in 1998, an OBE in 2009 and a Dame in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to para-cycling.
Sarah Storey’s sporting career
A teenage swimming star
Storey was just 14 when she competed at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, where she won two golds, three silvers and a bronze in the pool. She added three more golds at Atlanta 1996, then silver and bronze medals at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, finishing her swimming career with five Paralympic golds.
The switch to cycling
After Athens, Storey swapped the pool for the bike, and by 2005 she was already winning European titles and setting world records. The results since have been remarkable. She won two golds at Beijing 2008, four at London 2012, three at Rio 2016, three at Tokyo 2020 and two more at Paris 2024. That takes her overall Paralympic tally to 30 medals, including 19 golds, across nine Games.
She has also held her own against non-disabled riders. She was the first disabled cyclist to represent England at the Commonwealth Games, in Delhi in 2010, and has won British national titles on the track.
Interested in how other British sporting greats have built their fortunes? Read our guide to Sir Mo Farah’s net worth.
Storey Racing and other business interests
Sarah and Barney Storey have run women’s cycling teams since 2013, starting with Podium Ambition, which closed at the end of 2016 due to financial pressures. In 2017, they launched Storey Racing, a British women’s team that has raced on the road, track, cyclo-cross and mountain bikes and briefly held UCI Women’s Team status in 2018.
Teams like this are usually run for the love of the sport and to develop young riders rather than to make a profit, so it’s more likely to be a cost than a money-spinner for the couple. They also run the grassroots Boot Out Breast Cancer cycling club, linked to the breast cancer charity she supports as a patron.
Active Travel Commissioner for Greater Manchester
Storey’s day job away from the bike is in transport policy. She was South Yorkshire’s Active Travel Commissioner from 2019, then took over from Chris Boardman as Greater Manchester’s Active Travel Commissioner in May 2022. The role involves advising the mayor on making walking and cycling easy and safe as part of the Bee Network.
In August 2026, Greater Manchester’s mayor confirmed that she would stay on in the role. She was also named president of Lancashire County Cricket Club in 2024.
Sarah Storey on Strictly Come Dancing 2026
This wasn’t Storey’s first go at a reality TV dance show. She signed up for ITV’s Dancing on Ice in 2025, but in December 2024 she had to pull out after fracturing her left ankle in training.
On Strictly 2026 she was partnered with professional dancer Julian Caillon. They scored 15 for their quickstep in week one, rose to 24 for a Charleston in Movie Week, then scored 20 for a paso doble in week three.
Icons Week proved to be the end of the road. Their tango to Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” scored 21 and put them bottom of the leaderboard. They then lost the dance-off to Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu, and were the third couple to leave the competition on 18 October 2026. Storey later thanked Caillon on Instagram, calling him the best pro she could have wished for.
Want to see how she compares with the rest of the line-up? Check out our full breakdown of the Strictly Come Dancing 2026 cast net worths.
FAQs about Sarah Storey
What is Sarah Storey’s net worth?
Unifresher estimates Sarah Storey’s net worth at around £1.5 million in 2026, within a range of £1 million to £2.5 million, based on her long sporting career, sponsorship and speaking work, her commissioner role and TV appearances.
How many Paralympic medals has Sarah Storey won?
Storey has won 30 Paralympic medals, including 19 golds, across nine Games from Barcelona 1992 to Paris 2024. Five of her golds came in swimming and 14 in cycling.
How old is Sarah Storey?
Sarah Storey was born on 26 October 1977, so she turns 49 in October 2026.
Who was Sarah Storey’s Strictly partner?
She was partnered with Julian Caillon on Strictly Come Dancing 2026. They were eliminated in Icons Week after a dance-off with Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu.
Who is Sarah Storey married to?
She is married to Barney Storey, a former Paralympic tandem pilot and coach. The couple have two children and run Storey Racing together.
For another British sporting star who has turned success into a lucrative career, read our guide to Emma Raducanu’s net worth.