Classification is a structure for competition exclusive and essential to Paralympic sport. My research will look at athletes, support staff and classifiers’ experiences, opinions and levels of trust in classification. Attempts to undermine the integrity of classification damages Paralympic sport’s credibility and weakens the Paralympic Movement’s capacity to deliver its vision: to make for an inclusive world through Para sport.
By benchmarking athletes, support staff and classifiers’ understanding of classification policy and levels of trust in classification, while capturing contributory factors to those levels of trust, I plan to make recommendations that will improve levels of trust and safeguard the integrity of classification in Paralympic sport. The findings from my PhD could also be transferred across to other areas of sport integrity, not necessarily exclusive to either classification or Paralympic sport.
Before studying at Loughborough, I competed at the Atlanta Paralympic Games in 1996 and gained a degree in Sport in the Community. While working for the Irish Sport Council, I completed a part-time master’s degree in Equality Studies and then worked for the British Paralympic Association from 2003 until 2021, becoming its first Classification Manager in 2013. Through working in classification, I recognised that its integrity was at risk and the most impactful way to address this way by undertaking a PhD.