At the 2024 Chicago Marathon, British athlete Richard Whitehead broke the world record for athletes with a double amputation, adding to the Paralympic golds he won in 2012 and 2016 for the 200m T42 sprint.
In 2025, Whitehead completed 20 marathons around the world to reach his goal of running 100 marathons – a feat he was supported in by Loughborough University’s renowned expertise in para sport.
“Our facilities include a specialised, instrumented lab with a treadmill that accommodates wheelchairs. It can also be adapted for runners with a wider gait like Richard, who came here for physiological testing,” says Prof Vicky Tolfrey, professor of applied disability and para sport. “Athletes have come to us for our expertise and to use this hi-tech space for the past two decades.”
Since 2005, Loughborough University has been mentoring and developing disability-specific expertise to advance para sport, with a focus on inclusivity, research and innovation. It was recently awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education for its pioneering R&D contributions to para and disability sport, achieved within the globally recognised Loughborough Sport ecosystem that fosters excellence in performance, research and innovation. Its partnership with ParalympicsGB, supported over decades by the Peter Harrison Foundation, contributed significantly to ParalympicsGB securing a top-two world ranking at three consecutive Summer Paralympic Games.
“Our job is to help shape the future of Paralympic and disability sport,” says Tolfrey. “About 20% of the Paris 2024 ParalympicsGB leadership team were our graduates. Others work within research or HE lecturing and, more recently, have been recruited to lead Paralympic classification for the IPC. We’re also training up the experts who will hold influential roles at organisations like the FA’s disability football teams. By 2028, about 50 PhD graduates will have contributed to this vision, driving real impact across the para sport landscape.”
Thanks to Loughborough’s interdisciplinary expertise in areas such as technical and physical data collection, biomechanics, physiology and game-play analysis, the university, with international partners, has been instrumental in changing the face of para sports.
As well as working with athletes such as Whitehead to improve their individual performance, Loughborough’s students and academics have conducted large-scale studies that have helped to implement policy change.
“We’ve collaborated with GB’s paratriathlon athletes, measuring their core temperature while they compete, to help combat heatstroke,” says Tolfrey. “We’ve also worked with Wimbledon to help guide regulations for front-castor wheels for wheelchair tennis, addressing concerns around preserving grass‑court integrity. Everything we do is geared towards helping more disabled people to be able to participate in sports at every level.”
One example of these strides forward is a collaboration with the International Canoe Federation and the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences. The classification system for para sports, which varies between disciplines, is designed to minimise the impact of an athlete’s impairment on the outcome of competitions.
To help widen the participation pool for canoeing, Loughborough’s experts undertook biomechanical research that resulted in the International Paralympic Committee introducing a women’s Va’a category – using a type of outrigger canoe – which saw Emma Wiggs winning gold in the event at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. “I guess Loughborough could claim a piece of those medals,” laughs Wiggs.
“Loughborough University has always been a shining light for para sport, blazing a trail for others to follow,” she adds. “There’s such a lack of research, so its work has a huge impact across the globe, helping athletes like me to raise our performances to the next level.”
As well as supporting current and future Paralympians, Loughborough University is dedicated to promoting inclusion at grassroots level: “It’s something we’re passionate about,” says Tolfrey.
ParalympicsGB’s Equal Play campaign calls for equal access to physical education and school sport for disabled children and is supported by academics at Loughborough. “Research shows that only a quarter of disabled children are able to join in with PE and school sport all of the time,” says Tolfrey.
“We’ve examined the social impact of this, with the aim of improving sports provision in schools – and, of course, by helping to widen the scope of Paralympic sports [through our work in classification] we’re also encouraging more disabled children to want to be included in PE at school. We know that representation really matters.”
Tolfrey’s proudest moment to date came when she took 16 students and staff to the Paris 2024 Paralympics to experience the Games first-hand – and see the impact of their work play out in real life on the basketball court.
Wheelchair basketball had been removed from the 2024 Paralympics due to a dispute over athlete classification. In partnership with the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, Loughborough stepped in and took on the challenge of helping the sport to be reinstated. The academics’ success meant that Tolfrey and her students were able to witness the men of ParalympicsGB take silver, improving on the bronze won in Tokyo.
“Being there to see the team win a medal and how our work impacts athletes first-hand was heartwarming,” says Tolfrey. “It’s great to know we’re making a real difference.”
Find out more about research in sport, health and wellbeing at Loughborough University – and why it’s a gamechanger
