The journey begins….
The whole PHC team kicked off the ‘Road to Paris’ journey by joining together for a networking breakfast at the elite athlete centre at Loughborough University. It was a great opportunity for conversations to take place between PHC staff and doctoral researchers surrounding current and future activities and possibilities for collaborations within para sport.
Spotlight on psychology…
The PHC breakfast was followed later by a spotlight session by our resident psychology and psycho-physiology doctoral researchers Ellie-May Storr, Ben Walker and Daniel Angus to discuss their research in detail and provide an insight into the crucially important psychological elements of para sport.
Ellie-May Storr
Presenting my PhD research and future study plans was a great opportunity to showcase how sport psychology and mental health research can be applied within the para sport domain, and why it is so important to combine psychological perspectives with other disciplines such as biomechanics and physiology. It was also great to listen to the different methods and approaches being used across psych and psychophysiology research in the field, it really shows how diverse the PHC is.
Dan Angus
It was great to have the opportunity to showcase some of the psychology and psychophysiology research that is currently being conducted within the PHC. This stretched across a wide breadth of para-sports and highlighted just how crucial psychology can be as part of an interdisciplinary approach to improving sporting performance. I look forward to seeing more of the findings over the coming months!
Ben Walker
It was a real privilege to be able to share my research around mental health in Paralympic Sport with the wider PHC group recently, and to hear about how others are contributing to the continued development of understanding in this space, too. The session was a real showcase of the varied and innovative work that is going on relating to sport psychology and mental health across Paralympic sport, and why this is so important. There’s a real sense of progress in this space at the minute, and it’s great to see the pivotal role that the PHC is playing in this.
International Paralympic Committee…
Learnings surrounding the games continued throughout the month with a guest talk by Terrence Teixeira from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), organised by Iain Gowans. Terrence provided the team with some great insights into the inner workings of the Games, the IPC, the Paralympic movement, and how the IPC is facilitating and supporting activities in the lead up to the Summer Paralympic Games in Paris, 2024. Terrence also touched on looking ahead to the Winter Games in Milano Cortina, in 2026 and the next Paralympic cycle leading into Los Angeles, 2028. There were also some interesting discussions from the team with Terrence considering integration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Paralympic awareness and exposure, and education for first-time spectators of the Games.
Tash, who attended Terrence’s session, said:
As someone who is quite new to the field of Para sport and has not been to a Paralympic Games before, it was valuable to learn more about the IPC, the evolution of the Paralympic Games and the IPC’s role and influence within the Games. I am excited to be heading to the summer games with a greater awareness of the Paralympics and I am really looking forward to the spectating some great Para sports.
A really interesting presentation provided by Terrence and great participation from the group to explore different perspectives of the Paralympics.
ParalympicsGB…
April activities concluded with an informal Q&A session with Jonathan Riall, Head of Performance Services at ParalympicsGB.
The team got the opportunity to hear about Jonny’s personal experiences within Para Sport as well as ask questions about the upcoming Games and the role of ParalympicsGB. It was a great chance for the Team to understand what to expect from the Games in Paris and continue building excitement as the Games draw closer.
We have some very exciting events coming up as we approach the Games in August – keep your eyes peeled on our website and social media platforms for more updates in the coming months.