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Latest News

September 2008 - Dr Vicky Tolfrey returns from Paralymics holding camp

August 2008 - Dr Vicky Tolfrey returns from ICSEMIS in China

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

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

Archived News

May 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

April 2008 - Archive of Resources Donated to the Centre

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

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

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). Vicky also 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.” Follow this link to read the IPC’s full report on the convention.

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 follow this link.