Athletes from Loughborough College selected to represent ParalympicsGB have less than a week to go until competition begins at the 2016 Rio Games.
“This is set to be the most competitive Paralympics ever but I know there is serious medal potential here. This is a formidable line-up,” declared Penny Briscoe MBE, Chef de Mission for Paralympics GB.
Eleven athletes from Loughborough College are set to compete on the biggest stage for disability sport in the world when the Games open in Brazil on Wednesday 7 September.
This will be four-time world and two-time Commonwealth champion cyclist Sophie Thornhill’s Paralympic Games debut with the Loughborough College Sport student racing in the B 1km Time Trial and B 3 km Individual Pursuit.
Sophie Hahn recorded a new world record of 12.60 in the 100m in Doha last year and has won 11 medals across four international championships, including five gold medals. A Paralympic title is the only one missing from the Loughborough College student’s collection as she makes her debut for Britain in Rio.
It is the second Paralympic Games for fellow Loughborough College student Olivia Breen who starred in the bronze medal-winning relay team at London 2012. Olivia will compete in the T38 100m and 4 x 100m relay and in the long jump.
Loughborough College’s Julie Rogers also makes a return to the Paralympics after she joined Great Britain at London 2012 as one of the youngest competitors for sitting volleyball. In Rio she turns her attention to the track to compete in the T42 100m.
Triathlete George Peasgood joins the ParalympicsGB squad as the sport makes history, debuting at the Games. The Loughborough College Sport student was the youngest paratriathlon medallist ever at 17 and, now 20, is the current British Paratriathlon PT4 champion.
Loughborough College student Ross Wilson and alumnus Aaron McKibbin will both compete for ParalympicsGB table tennis. The pair won team bronze at the London Games four years ago when, at the age of 17, Ross was the youngest member of the table tennis team.
Rio will see Ellie Simmonds OBE compete at her third Games, after the former Loughborough College student won two golds in China in 2008 at age 13 and went on to claim two gold medals, a silver and a bronze four years later in London.
Former Loughborough College student Libby Clegg set a new T11 200m world record at the recent IPC Athletics Grand Prix Final and the London 2012 silver medallist will also be competing at her third Games.
Sam Ingram is the most decorated athlete on the British Judo Paralympic programme and this will be his third consecutive Games representing ParalympicsGB. The former Loughborough College student was a bronze medallist in Beijing and won silver at London 2012 in the -90kg class.
This is Dave Phillipson’s third successive appearance at a Games for ParalympicsGB. In 2008 the wheelchair tennis player, who has a BTEC in Sport Science from Loughborough College, became the number one ranked player in Great Britain, breaking the 14-year reign of four-time Paralympian Jayant Mistry.
ParalympicsGB has finished in the top three on the medal table at the last four Games and has set a target of winning 121 medals for Rio. Including guides, pilots and competition partners, 264 athletes will represent Great Britain in 19 of the 22 Paralympic sports on offer in Brazil.