Latest News

10th March 2010 Dr Vicky Tolfrey presenting at Vancouver's Providence Heart and Lung Institute's Discussion on The Path to Exceptional Athletic Achievement

1st March 2010 Dr Brett Smith is giving an invited talk at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin on 'Spinal cord injury, well-being, and the possibilities of narrative medicine.'

Archive Material Donated to the Centre - February 2010

22-24 February 2010 Dr Claudio Perret Visiting the PHC

Click here to see the Archived News Contents

The Providence Heart and Lung Institute in Vancouver has invited Dr Vicky Tolfrey to present at Peak Performance: The Path to Exceptional Athletic Achievement. The event will be held on Wednesday 10th March 2010 at the Segal Centre in Vancouver.

The presentations will consist of lively and provocative dialogue with key speakers who are well-recognised leaders in the fields of athletics and fitness. Presenters will address the scientific, ethical and psychological issues that underlie competitive sports and the challenges athletes face in reaching peak performance. They will address the latest advances in sport science and technology, ever-evolving ethical challenges, and perhaps some learnings from the 2010 Winter Games.

For further information about the event please see the Providence Heart and Lung website at: http://www.heartandlung.ca/peak/

Dr Brett Smith has been invited to give a talk on 'Spinal cord injury, well-being, and the possibilities of narrative medicine' at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin on Monday 1st March 2010. Further details about the lecture can be found on the flyer.

A donation of archived material on disability sport has been kindly donated to the Centre by Mr & Mrs Pattison who worked for the British Amputee and Les Autres Sports Association (BALASA). The collection comprises of BALASA newsletters and reports from various Paralympic Games from the 1980s and 1990s.

The new donation of material will be incorporated into the Centre's existing archive of materials which was donated by Mr Ivor Mitchell in 2008.

The PHC is pleased to announce that Dr Claudio Perret from the Institute of Sports Medicine at the Swiss Paraplegic Centre in Nottwil, will be a visiting the PHC on 22-24 February. Dr Perret has been invited by the Sports Science research team led by Dr Vicky Tolfrey.

Dr Perret's research interests include exercise and respiratory physiology as well as sport nutrition and are focused on optimising exercise performance in spinal cord injured patients and athletes but also in able-bodied athletes.

Dr David Howe visiting The Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education between the 25th of January and the 6th of February.

Got Gold in You -'1000 days to go and there is still time to be on the podium in 2012'

Christof Leicht, PHC Research Assistant, Seeking Active Wheelchair Users to Recruit for New Study - updated 7 October 2009

Dr David Howe will be the Visiting Professor at Leuven University on the 17-19 September 2009

Latest PHC Newsletter Published - Issue 5 Summer 2009 -16 July 2009 -

HRH The Princess Royal meets the Centre's staff as she launches the new School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University - 12th May 2009

Prof Thomas Janssen Comments on his visit to the BPA Conference 2009 - March 2009

Dr Peter van der Vliet Comments on his visit to the BPA Conference 2009 -March 2009

The Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport and Human Kinetics Poster Awards at the BPA Conference 2009 -March 2009

Dr Sean Tweedy, University of Queensland visits the PHC - February 2009

PHC Teams up with the GB Wheelchair Basketball Association -December 2008

John Lenton Appointed Research Assistant at PHC - December 2008

IPC - Call for Research Applications for Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games - October 2008

Marie Dannhaeuser Appointed Research Assistant at PHC - October 2008

Dr Vicky Tolfrey Returns from Paralympics Holding Camp - September 2008

Dr Vicky Tolfrey Returns from ICSEMIS in China - August 2008

Nadine Geddes Appointed Research Associate at the Institute of Youth Sport - July 2008

IPC Sport Science & Medicine Committee Meeting in Vancouver - June 2008

Website Re-launch - May 2008

David Howe Presents 'Technology, Performance & the Politics of Amputation within Athletics' at Conference in Toronto - May 2008

PHC’s First Interest Group Meeting - May 2008

Information Officer Awarded CILIP Chartership - May 2008

Archive of Resources Donated to the Centre - April 2008

Barry Mason Wins 1st Place at the BPA Conference Poster Awards - March 2008

David Purdue- Latest Associated PhD Student to Join the Centre - March 2008

Dr. David Howe will be visiting The Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education between the 25th of January and the 6th of February as a visiting Professor. He will be hosted by Prof. Øyvind Standal with whom David will be discussing the potential for collaborative research projects and potential links with the PHC.

1000 Day to go and there is still time to be on the Podium in 2012

• Nationwide talent drive launched to find British Paralympic Champions in final 1000 days before London 2012.
• Last chance to put yourself forward for the once in a lifetime opportunity to win gold on home soil.

Today marks 1000 days until the start of the Paralympic Games in London and there is still time to become a Paralympic Gold medalist in front of a home crowd in 2012.

With time ticking down until the Opening Ceremony begins,  athletes with an impairment have never had a better chance to put themselves forward for a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk into the Olympic Stadium at Stratford as part of the ParalympicsGB team.  

Talent 2012: Paralympic Potential is a nationwide talent search being run by UK Sport, EIS and the British Paralympic Association. A campaign of this size so close to a Games is unprecedented and whilst it can take athletes up to eight years to reach an Olympics, research has shown that potential participants for a Paralympic Games can be ready to compete at an elite level much sooner.

Results at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing show that 33% of British medallists had been part of a world class elite programme for less than two years and 19 of the British Gold medals were won by first time Paralympians. Chelsea Warr, Head of Athlete Development at UK Sport, said: “The ability to achieve a Paralympic Gold medal is a rare commodity and identifying those capable of doing so in the final 1000 days before 2012 will be no easy task. It is possible however, as results at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing have shown, that with hard work, dedication and the right coaching set up, we can make someone’s dream a reality.”

Dave Smith, who only began training as a rower 12 months ago and who is hoping to compete in London in 2012, said: “Just a year ago I was competing in Bobsleigh. The switch to Paralympic rowing was a challenge for me, and I’m improving all the time. I was delighted to become a world champion in my first season and am completely focused on achieving success in 2012.

“I think my story demonstrates that with the right coaching and determination anything is possible. I hope other athletes in a similar position to me will grab their 2012 opportunity.”

The campaign is open to athletes aged between 15 and 35 with any form of impairment who believe they have what it takes to become a Paralympic Champion in 1000 days time.  ParalympicsGB Chief Executive, Phil Lane, said: “Whilst we have come second in the medal table at the past four Games, there are many events that we simply haven’t been able to field an athlete in. With the competition getting tougher all the time it is vital that we have explored all avenues to recruit new athletes.”

Those people with any form of disability, who think they might have what it takes to become a Paralympic Champion in London in 2012, should register their interest at www.uksport.gov.uk/talent before the 11th January 2010.

ParalympicsGB are the organisation responsible for selecting, entering, managing and funding the British team at the summer and winter Paralympic Games. At the last Paralympic Games in Beijing,  ParalympicsGB finished second in the medal table behind host nation China and won 102 medals, 42 of which were Gold.

UK Sport is the nation’s high-performance sports agency. Its mission is to work in partnership to lead sport in the UK to world class success. Primarily this means working with our partner sporting organisations to deliver medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. UK Sport is a distributor of both Exchequer and National Lottery funds.

The English Institute of Sport (EIS) is a nationwide network of sport science and medical support working with elite sport based in England. Amongst the various services it provides, its Talent Identification Scientists work with the UK Talent Team in collaboration with UK Sport.

David Smith is currently a world champion in adaptive rowing and a great example of how athletes can progress through the ranks quickly. A former member of the GB bobsleigh team, Dave has a fused ankle, which limited his development in that sport. On the advice of a coach, he joined a ParalympicsGB initiative and was spotted by GB Rowing coaches. Dave joined the GB rowing team in early 2009 and became a world champion later that year.

55% of GB athletes were first time Paralympians in Beijing. Of these 1/3 won medals and 15 of Britain’s 42 gold medals were secured by first time Paralympians.

33% of British medallists had been part of a world class elite programme for less than two years. The number of medals won by first time Paralympians had a huge impact on ParalympicsGB’s performance.

Please direct all enquiries to either -

Tash Carpenter at the BPA: tash.carpenter@paralympics.org.uk or 07766 991 152.
Or
Jessica Whitehorn at UK Sport: Jessica.whitehorn@uksport.gov.uk or 07747 562532.

• Photography and video footage are available on request.

• Regional Case Studies of athletes are available on request. 

For news updates on this and other talent campaigns visit the UK Sport website at http://www.uksport.gov.uk/talent. Follow the talent campaign on Facebook and Twitter

For news updates visit the ParalympicsGB website at http://www.paralympics.org.uk. Follow ParalympicsGB on Facebook and Twitter

Improving training strategies in upper body exercise

A study examining the impact of a respiratory warm-up upon performance in upper body exercise is due to start at Loughborough University by the end of October. We are now looking to recruit active wheelchair users who are willing to act as participants. As a participant you will obtain a clear insight into our research setting and learn about your body’s functional capacity. You may also be among the first people training with a brand new strategy for wheelchair users.

Background of the study
The strength of the respiratory muscles can be increased by performing generic exercise or through a specific, targeted warm-up. Such a warm-up usually involves increasing the work of breathing using an inspiratory loading device, and this method has previously been shown to improve rowing performance in well trained women, and repeated sprint running performance in healthy young males.

A respiratory muscle warm-up offers a safe and easy-to-perform method of easing the transition from rest to exercise, and is likely to reduce breathlessness and perceived effort throughout a physical task. However, identifying an optimal respiratory warm-up procedure has received little attention and the approach as a whole has not been explored in upper body exercise.

For athletes, a positive effect of respiratory warm-up may help to improve training practises and competition results. For less active individuals, any improvement in exercise tolerance is likely to enhance the levels of independence and may also provide an impetus to initiate further training programmes. In this study, we will therefore explore whether the use of respiratory muscle loading as a warm-up technique can improve exercise tolerance and reduce breathlessness in wheelchair users.

We are aware of the fact that there may be interested study participants who do not live close to Loughborough. In such circumstances, we will be able to help cover travel and where necessary accommodation expenses.

Research Assistant Christof Leicht is happy to answer any questions and can be contacted either via e-mail: c.a.leicht@lboro.ac.uk or Tel: 01509 226396.

This article has also been posted on the official Handcyling UK website.

Dr David Howe is currently the 2007-9 visiting scholar at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and contributes to the international MA in Adaptive Physical Activity.

On the 17-19th September 2009, David will be the visiting professor teaching on the International Perspectives of Paralympic Sport.

HRH The Princess Royal visited Loughborough University on Tuesday 12th May 2009 to launch the new School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences (SSEHS) and officially open its state of the art Clyde Williams building.

The launch of the new School and the Clyde Williams Building has significantly benefited the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (PHC). In 2008, the PHC was granted support from both the Peter Harrison Foundation and the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences for the purchase of a specialised treadmill which accommodates wheelchairs. This treadmill is now housed in a laboratory within the new Clyde Williams building and will generate new and exciting opportunities for applied research in the field of disability sport.

HRH The Princess Royal talking to athlete Matt Byrne on the specialised treadmill housed within the new Clyde Williams building. In the background from left to right can be seen PhD student Barry Mason, Research Assistant Christof Leicht, athlete David Phillipson and Director Dr Vicky Tolfrey, all from the PHC. Image courtesy of Andy Weekes

To celebrate the launch of the new School the PHC invited along paralympic athletes, Matt Byrne and David Phillipson to take part in the laboratory presentations and demonstrations for The Princess Royal.

Matt Byrne is a double Paralympic bronze medallist in wheelchair basketball and competed at both the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Paralympics. In 2004 the GB men's team beat Holland 82-66 to claim the bronze medal and in 2008 beat USA 85-77 to retain the bronze medal. Matt lives in Nottingham and trains at the English Institute of Sport Powerbase gym which is located on the Loughborough University campus. Dr Vicky Tolfrey has been assisting the GB Men's wheelchair basketball team with physiological support and Matt has regularly attended the physiology laboratory for several research related projects.

David Phillipson lives in Nottingham and turned a Pro tennis player at the age of 17. Leading into Beijing (which was his first Paralympic Games) he was ranked 24th in the World in the men's single category. He is currently ranked 35 in the men's division this year. David trains at the tennis centre based at Loughborough University campus. Dr Vicky Tolfrey was the Lead Physiology Consultant to the British Tennis players for the last two Paralympic Cycles. John Lenton the Research Assistant to the Peter Harrison Centre of Disability Sport traveled to Beijing under Dr Tolfrey's guidance to support the team during the Games.

HRH The Princess Royal talking to athlete David Phillipson in the Clyde Williams building. In the background from left to right can be seen PhD student Barry Mason, and Research Assistant John Lenton from the PHC. Image courtesy of Andy Weekes

The new School brings together the complementary strengths of the University’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences and the biological and psychological components of Human Sciences with research and teaching across sport, exercise, education, health and wellbeing across the life span.

The Clyde Williams building, is an £8m construction which houses 27 laboratories, four teaching rooms and a large lecture theatre as well as the latest physiological, molecular and environmental technologies including two climatic chambers, a sprint lane and bespoke training and testing equipment.

The building was named after Professor Clyde Williams, who has pioneered much of the research in sport and exercise sciences at the University. Professor Williams provided a short speech prior to The Princes Royal receiving a tour of the building's new facilities where students and staff put on a range of demonstrations to show the variety of research undertaken within the School. 

Professor Thomas Janssen from the Research Institute MOVE at the VU University Amsterdam, was the invited speaker at this year's British Paralympic Association's (BPA) 7th Annual Sports Science, Sports Medicine & Coaching Conference. The event was supported by the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (PHC) and was held at Burleigh Court in Loughborough on the 4-5th March 2009.

The PHC and BPA invited Professor Janssen to present on 'quantifying training'. The theme of the 2009 conference was on ‘Beijing to London: Lessons Learnt and Looking Forwards’. Professor Janssen said:

'The conference was very interesting and stimulating and most oral presentations and posters were of high quality. I particularly enjoyed the combination of presentations by scientists and practitioners. An intense interaction between them, is in my mind essential for improving athletic performance and this conference was apparently a great platform for this interaction.

What really impressed me was the complete dedication and enthusiasm of most presenters, especially from the coaches. I now know why the GB Paralympic athletes are so successful and probably will be even more so during the London Games: they have a great support team which many countries (including mine) would be jealous of.

I enjoyed visiting the PHC and School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. The facilities are impressive and the combination of more cell-oriented techniques with more total-human-oriented techniques seems ideal to me. I look forward to intensifying our collaboration in research on athletes with disabilities'.

Please click on the link to find out further information about Professor Thomas Janssen's Research Institute.

Dr Peter van de Vliet is the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) Medical & Scientific Director. Dr van der Vliet attended this year's British Paralympic Association's (BPA) 7th Annual Sports Science, Sports Medicine & Coaching Conference. The event was supported by the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (PHC) and was held at Burleigh Court in Loughborough on the 4-5th March 2009.

Dr Peter van de Vliet said:

'The BPA is to be applauded for their continued efforts of bringing together sports science experts and sports performance staff related to Paralympic sports from all over the country and from all of the sports. A gathering of more than 120 experts at the 2009 annual sports science conference not only guarantees exchange of knowledge and dynamic interactions in a conference format that covers both scientific presentations and practice-based information sessions, it also sets the framework for more intense co-operation across sports disciplines.

The organizers should be congratulated on the particular efforts made to attract (mainly) young researchers to the conference in allowing them to present research findings in poster sessions. The tight competition for the poster awards is indicative for the quality of the work delivered and the dedication showed by those researchers to present their findings to an attentive audience.

It has been my pleasure to participate to the success of the 2009 edition of the BPA Sports Science Conference and I wish all coaches and sport performance staff the best of luck in transferring the conference findings in the daily practice with Paralympic athletes.'

The British Paralympic Association's (BPA) 7th Annual Sports Science, Sports Medicine and Coaching Conference 2009, was held on the 4-5th March.

The Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport and Human Kinetics have sponsored the poster awards which will be presented by ParalympicsGB during the conference. The awards seek to reward outstanding contributions to sport and exercise sciences by advancing our knowledge in disability sport. 

Award Criteria:

1. The applicant must be the presenting, and thus first named, author of the abstract.
2. Awards will be given for excellence, reflected in the academic content, presentation and defence quality of the poster presentation.
   
3. The application of the research findings to Paralympic performance will also be considered.
   

The Awards Panel's decision is final in all cases.
1st Place - £50 Human Kinetics book voucher
2nd Place - £30 Human Kinetics book voucher
3rd Place - £20 Human Kinetics book voucher

The PHC would like to thank everyone who took part in the poster sessions and to congratulate the winners who included:

1st place - Chris West from Brunel University, who presented a poster on the 'Effect of Inspiratory Muscle Training in Paralympic Athletes with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury', by West, C.R., Taylor, B.J,. Campbell, I.G., and Romer, L.M.

2nd place - Connor Osborough from the School of Science & Technology at Nottingham Trent University and the Department of Exercise & Sport Science at Manchester Metropolitan University, who presented a poster on 'Inter-arm Coordination of Competitive Unilateral Arm Amputee Front Crawl Swimmers', by Osborough, C.D., Payton, C.J., and Daly, D.J.

3rd place - Bruce Dyer from Bournemouth University, who presented a poster on 'A Fair Provision of Lower-Limb Prostheses Technology in Paralympic Running', by Dyer, B., Noroozi, S., Sewell, P., and Redwood, S.

The photograph shows the winners of the poster awards (holding their awards) with (from left to right) Prof Thomas Janssen, Dr Peter Van der Vliet, Dr Vicky Tolfrey of the PHC and Mr Paul Davies from the BPA.

By Dr Vicky Tolfrey

In 2008 the Peter Harrison Centre began its visiting scholar program. The inaugural visiting scholar was Dr Sean Tweedy from the University of Queensland, Australia. He was the guest of the Centre from 18th to 24th January 2009. The week was extremely productive and a number of projects were discussed with group members of the PHC.

Chief among these new collaborations is an agreement by the Peter Harrison Centre to contribute to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics Classification project. Dr Tweedy is Chief investigator on this 4 year project, which addresses one of the Paralympic movement's most pressing needs - development of objective, evidence-based methods for classifying athletes in Paralympic sport. "I am very pleased that Dr Vicky Tolfrey's Sports Science team has agreed to contribute to this very challenging and important project." Said Dr Tweedy. "The bright minds, skilled staff and wonderful facilities of the PHC will be invaluable."

During his stay Dr Tweedy also invited Dr David Howe to contribute an historical profile of the Paralympic movement to an upcoming publication sponsored by the International Olympic Committee entitled The Paralympic Athlete. Other activities included an open presentation to the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences Physiology Research Group and discussions with representatives from UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport and the British Paralympic Association (BPA).

This successful visit is soon to be to be followed by Professor Thomas Janssen (Free University Amsterdam) who has been invited jointly by the PHC and the BPA to deliver a keynote at the March BPA Sport Science, Medicine and Coaching Conference. Moreover, during this conference Professor Liz Bressan from Stellenbosch University will be visiting the PHC with colleagues from her University to discuss links with the Centre. This is an exciting time for the Centre with it's recent staffing investments of John Lenton and Christof Leicht.

The PHC teams up with the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association to provide an insight into the body composition profiles of its National Team (Bronze medallists at the Beijing Paralympics). Players are attending the SSES/Human Sciences for assessments in body composition during a 16-month period with PhD students Mhairi Keil and Louise Croft. The data collected will provide a value insight into the longitudinal changes that occur as a result of training. Moreover we have established a link with Loughborough College and are exploring the relationship between using the Bodpod and the DEXA. Katherine Brooke-Wavell from Loughborough University's Human Sciences is part of this exciting project.

The PHC would like to welcome John Lenton who is taking up a new position within the centre as a Research Assistant investigating the area of 'field based testing of wheelchair athletes'. This post will start in January 2009 and further information about this project will be provided soon.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has launched a ‘Call for Research Applications’ for projects to be conducted at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games (12 – 21 March 2010). Applications need to be received before 10 March 2009 to be considered by the IPC. For further details about the applications please see the PDF or Word documents found here or visit the IPC's website.

The Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport would like to welcome Marie Dannhaeuser, the latest member of staff to join the team. Marie started on the 1st October 2008 and she will be working as Research Assistant for the Sport, Culture and Policy Research strand led by Dr David Howe. Marie is also currently writing up her PhD in the Sociology of Sport which was funded by the PHC.

As the Paralympic athletes move into Beijing, Dr Vicky Tolfrey returns from the ParalympicsGB holding camp in Macau, located in the South East of China.

Vicky says that the camp created a great platform for the athletes and support staff during the final preparations. Athletes were able to concentrate on training, whilst accessing ParalympicsGB Core support staff services which included; physiological, psychological and medical support.

The photograph above shows Dr Vicky Tolfrey (BPA Physiology Consultant) with Helen Alfano (Physiologist EIS/BPA) with the Cerebral Palsy Football squad prior to their departure to the Paralympic Village.

Vicky lead the Science services and provided support in the areas of hydration, well-being and jet lag with Loughborough based colleague Helen Alfano from the English Institute of Sport (EIS) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA). Nik Diaper and Jeanette Crosland who Vicky has been working closely with as part of the Beijing Acclimitisation Group, provided similar services to the athletes that were part of the ParalympicsGB Hong Kong site.

In the centre of the photograph is Dr Vicky Tolfrey (BPA Physiology Consultant) with Helen Alfano (Physiologist EIS/BPA) on the left and Cath Shearer (Psychologist WIS) on the right.

Dr Vicky Tolfrey has returned from the 2008 International Convention on Science Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS), which was held on the 1-4th August in Guangzhou, China.  The convention attracted more than 1,500 attendees, representing 40 different countries, who enjoyed 350 oral presentations, 1,000 poster presentations and a series of workshops in the wide area of sports science, sports education and sports medicine.  For the first time ever, four major international sports organizations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Council for Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE), the International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) joined forces to discuss the advancement of science and practice of human movement.

Vicky chaired an invited IPC symposium on ‘Nutritional strategies and the application to Paralympic sport’.  A copy of the symposium abstract can be found here.  A full list of the ICSEMIS symposia abstracts can be seen on their website.

Other invited speakers included Dr Mike Price from Coventry University and Professor Ian Campbell from Brunel University.

Vicky presented an oral presentation entitled 'The effectiveness of hand cooling at reducing exercise-induced hyperthermia and improving distance-race performance in wheelchair and able-bodied athletes', by Goosey-Tolfrey, V.L. Swainson, M.G., Boyd, C., Atkinson, G. and Tolfrey, K. (2008). Laura Sutton from Liverpool John Moores University presented a poster on 'Body composition of highly-trained female wheelchair athletes measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry', by Sutton, L., Wallace, J., Scott, M., Reilly, T and Goosey-Tolfrey, V. (2008).

Vicky commented that it was good to see a large presence of practitioners from Paralympic sport at the convention. IPC President Sir Philip Craven, who attended the opening of the convention said: "A get-together of so many scientists with the same interest, but targeting different populations (eg, Olympic athletes versus Paralympic athletes) is of extreme interest to all partners. By learning from one another and incorporating scientific findings in the all day practice of athletes, trainers and coaches, we can progress sports participation from the grass root level of sport development up to the elite performance and role modeling of Paralympic and Olympic athletes.”

The Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (PHC) would like to wish Nadine Geddes the very best in her new job position as a Research Associate at the Institute of Youth Sport. Nadine joined the PHC as a Research Associate in February 2007 and worked on various projects within the centre including TOP Sportsability and Elements.

On the 16-22 June 2008, Dr Vicky Tolfrey attended a meeting in Vancouver with the IPC Sport Science and Medicine Committee.

The photo below shows from left to right Dr. Nick Webborn, Prof. Elizabeth Bressan, Dr. Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey, Dr. Peter Van de Vliet, Dr. Yves Vanlandewijck, Prof. Jennifer Mactavish and Prof. Walter Thompson.

Welcome to the new website. Following an extensive period of consultation, the new site for The Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport, was launched on the 22nd May 2008.

One of the most important aspects in redesigning the new site was to ensure that users' accessibility was enhanced. Consequently, a significant number of improvements have been developed.

These include a clearer navigation system with all the links located on the left-hand side of the screen and a site map.The new site is also compliant with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. This is indicated by the recognisable logo which can be seen at the bottom of each page.

The site has been given a fresh contemporary design and re-structured to reflect the Centre's two new strands of research. These are: Sport Science led by Dr Vicky Tolfrey and Sport Culture and Policy led by Dr David Howe.

Redesigning the website became a priority when it was realised that the Peter Harrison Centre's original website had been designed using tables and frames. Although these are a common feature of early website design, research has since found that the widespread use of frames and tables can generate problems with accessibility.

This is because screen readers, which a number of visually impaired people use to access online material, can only be read horizontally and this can cause users confusion and frustration (Harris C & Oppenheim C. The Provision of Library Services for Visually Impaired Students in UK Further Education in Response to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act SENDA, in the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 2003; 35, 245). It is anticipated that the new website design will help to alleviate any problems associated with accessibility.

The Centre's Deputy Director Dr. David Howe, attended a conference hosted by the Faculty of Physical Education and Health at the University of Toronto on the 20-22 May, 2008. The conference 'To Remember is To Resist: 40 Years of Sport and Social Change' celebrated the power that sport has to illuminate injustice within society.

Beginning with a rousing address by Professor Harry Edwards of the University of California, Berkeley entitled 'Turmoil and Change in Sport at the Outset of the 21st Century' the conference provided a health environment for critical discussion and debate. Importantly there was a disability sports theme to the conference with a wide range of papers from experiences scholars as well as Post-Graduate Students.

David presented a paper on the relationship between technology and the practice of the Paralympic Games that was titled 'Technology, Performance and the Politics of Amputation within Athletics'. This was part of a well attended session that focused upon the debates surrounding South African Athlete Oscar Pistorius. This session and others on disability sport showed that our field is at last beginning to be taken seriously within the broad church that is the social sciences of sport.

On the 13th May 2008, the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (PHC) organised the first Interest Group Meeting which was orientated around physiology and Paralympic research.  The meeting proved to be a great success and brought together academics and practitioners from Loughborough University’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, the English Institute of Sport (EIS) and the PHC. 

The aim of the meetings are to stimulate discussion for future and collaborative projects relevant to disability sport research.  The first meeting was presented by Dr Vicky Tolfrey, the Director of the PHC who leads the Sport Science research strand at the Centre.  Vicky provided an overview of current projects in disability sport which have been carried out at Loughborough University since September 2007 and projects that will take place over the summer of 2008. 

• The second meeting has been proposed to take place in July 2008 and will be led by Nik Diaper and Helen Alfano from the EIS.   
• A third meeting is also scheduled for October 2008 and will be presented by the Deputy Director of the PHC, Dr David Howe and his team from the Sport Culture and Policy research stand.   

If you would like any further information about the Interest Group Meetings please email Charlotte the Information Officer at C.Greasley@lboro.ac.uk

On the 21st May 2008, Charlotte Greasley the Information Officer for the Peter Harrison Centre was awarded Chartered Membership of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). Chartered Membership is considered by CILIP as being the ‘gold standard’ for information and library professionals and is recognised worldwide. Chartered Membership is not an academic qualification but a recognition of the highest standards of professional practice and a commitment to undertake continuing professional development.

Charlotte first registered to take part on the Chartership process in August 2006 during which time she built up a portfolio of work reflecting her commitment to continual professional development, evaluation and professionalism.  In March 2008, she submitted her final portfolio for consideration by the CILIP Board. 

Charlotte would like to express her gratitude to her mentor, Professor Charles Oppenheim of Loughborough University, who provided excellent advice and guidance throughout the Chartership process.

In April 2008, a collection of resources associated with disability sport were kindly donated to the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport. The resources were donated by Mr Ivor Mitchell who played a significant role within the area of disability sport for over forty years.

The collection includes handbooks, yearbooks, newsletters, reports and conference papers from a range of prominent disability sport organisations from the 1960s onwards. Mr Mitchell expressed his interest in donating the collection to the Centre to ensure that the resources were available to students interested in this area of study.

The collection has significant historical importance as it charts the development and rise of disability sport over several decade. This is particularly exciting for the Centre's Sport Culture and Policy research strand, led by Dr David Howe, which broadly focuses on the cultural politics and sociology/anthropology of the body in sport and leisure. The collection has also sparked interest from David Purdue, who is the latest PhD student to be associated with the PHC.

The Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport would like to congratulate PhD student Barry Mason who is associated with the Centre. In March 2008, Barry won first place in the poster awards at the British Paralympic Association Sport Medicine, Science and Coaching Conference held at Loughborough University.

The poster awards were sponsored by the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport and Human Kinetics and seek to reward those who make outstanding contributions to sport and exercise sciences by advancing knowledge in disability sport.

Barry who is studying at Loughborough University received a £50 Human Kinetics book voucher for his winning poster on The Effect Of Glove Type On Wheelchair Rugby Performance,  Mason BS, Lutgendorf M, van der Woude LHV, & Goosey-Tolfrey VL. The PDF version of Barry's poster can be viewed here

Second place was awarded to Laura Sutton from Liverpool John Moores University, for her poster on Body Composition Of Highly-Trained Female Wheelchair Basketball Players Measured By Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry, Sutton L, Wallace J, Scott M, Goosey-Tolfrey VL, & Reilly T.

Third place was awarded to Michelle Swainson from Manchester Metropolitan University, for her poster on The Effectiveness Of Hand Cooling On Thermoregulatory and Physiological Responses in Wheelchair and Able-Bodied Athletes During Exercise in the Heat, Swainson M, Boyd C, Atkinson G, Tolfrey K, & Goosey-Tolfrey VL.

The Peter Harrison Centre would like to congratulate the winners of the poster awards and to thank all the students who took part. 

The PHC would like to welcome its latest associated PhD student, David Purdue to the Centre.  David gained his BSc with Honours in Sport and Exercise Science in 2006, from Loughborough University and continued his studies at the University where he gained an MSc with Distinction in the Sociology of Sport in 2007.  

David describes how he first became interested in the area of disability sport when he studied his BSc,  which included a module on how to incorporate people with disabilities into PE.  This interest was furthered during his MSc as several lectures were focused on the sociological aspect of disability sport.  These lectures were delivered by Dr D. Howe, the deputy director of the PHC and provided David with the opportunity to learn about a PhD opportunity that was arising which focused on the sociological aspects of disability sport. 

David started his SSES funded PhD in October 2007 and his research explores the experiences of 'severely impaired' athletes within the Paralympic Movement. Primarily, this research intends to investigate the historical development of disability sport (specifically from the start of the Stoke Mandeville Games to the Paralympics). It is anticipated that the current manifestation, and potential future of the Paralympic Games, can be better understood and critiqued in light of this historical investigation. Furthermore, this research aims to better appreciate the complexities of disability theory and terminology used surrounding disability, as well as the structure of disability sport (including issues of classification and use of technology within the Paralympic Games).

Currently, literature on this area of study is very limited and David plans to further his research by visiting the archives at Stoke Mandeville and the International Paralympic Committee in Bonn.  In April 2008, David recently attended a meeting with Mr. I. Mitchell, who played a significant role within the area of disability sport and who recently donated his archive of resources to the PHC.  

David expressed that this meeting with Mr. Mitchell proved to be very helpful for his research.  Firstly, Mr Mitchell’s donation has provided an invaluable collection of literary resources which are otherwise difficult to obtain.  Secondly, David was able to hear a first hand account from an eye witness who brought to life the historical aspects of disability sport. 

If you are interested in contacting David please email him at D.E.J.Purdue@lboro.ac.uk. To read David's student profile please click here.