Para sport scholarships
By supporting our Para sport initiative, you are not only making a profound impact to a young person’s life, you are making a valuable contribution to a more inclusive world where disability can be celebrated. Your gift can help us nurture talented Para athletes in a wide array of sports whilst fostering a world class Para sport environment open to all our disabled students.
Our ambition is to be number 1 in the world for Para sport
Loughborough University is already home to one of the largest multi-sport communities of Para athletes within any University in the UK.
Our ambition is to become the leading university in Para sport globally, and to create inspirational, inclusive and life-shaping opportunities for all our disabled students.
Para sport is a powerful vehicle to promote change in attitudes towards disability. At an individual level it can literally be life changing. At a society level, it can break down barriers, inspire people of all abilities and promote inclusion and diversity. At Loughborough, we recognise the valuable role that Para sport can play at both recreational and social levels as well as the elite level.
What your gift will achieve
Supporting elite performance
Loughborough has been home to incredibly talented Para-athletes for decades. At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Loughborough based athletes contributed an impressive 10 Gold, 8 Silver and 4 Bronze medals to the overall medal tally for Paralympics GB. Around 100 of Loughborough’s staff, students and alumni are be involved in the 2020 Tokyo games.
Your gift could support a talented Para athlete who may one day secure glory at the highest level.
Building on our inclusive community
Up to 15% of Loughborough’s students are registered as having some form of a disability. In addition to top tier athletes that are among the world’s finest, we want every Loughborough student with a disability who wants to take part in Para sport to be encouraged and supported to do so. It is a vital aspect of the Loughborough experience that every student feels they can take up the opportunities that sport and Para sport can offer.
Support medal winning Paralympians like Crystal
Crystal Lane-Wright studied for a Masters degree in Sport Nutrition at Loughborough. Thanks to a donor funded scholarship she was able to take steps towards achieving her goal of becoming successful Paralympic cyclist. She was able to secure medal success in Rio, winning pursuit silver on the track and road race bronze. In Tokyo, Crystal completed a historic hat-trick of medals by winning three silver medals.
On her scholarship, funded by the Peter Harrison Foundation, Crystal said:
The campus facilities are excellent and my scholarship allowed me to spend a lot of time in the newly refurbished gym, Power Base. As part of my programme I needed to become physically stronger and the full use of the gym was so beneficial in making this possible.
The support I received from Loughborough was first class, but my journey would not have been possible without the support and kind generosity of Loughborough donors.
Your gift will make all the difference
A gift of any amount will make a big difference and allow us to:
Attract talent from across the globe
Attract talent from across the world to come to Loughborough to compete and attain success for our university, all the while adding to the diversity of our campus community.
Meet travel costs and buy equipment
Help our Para-athletes meet unexpected costs around events/equipment.
Maintain our unique contribution to British Para Sport
Help to maintain Loughborough’s unique contributions to national success at the Paralympic games in Paris 2024 and beyond.
Offer a lifeline for those just starting out
Your gift can serve as a lifeline for those just starting out in Para sport, who can not secure lottery funding or who are not eligible to receive it.
Why we need your support
Loughborough's Para sport credentials
Our unique history
At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Loughborough based athletes contributed an impressive 10 Gold, 8 Silver and 4 Bronze medals to the overall medal tally for Paralympics GB.
Several Paralympic National Governing Bodies (NGBs) also choose to base their Performance Programmes at Loughborough University thanks to its world class facilities, creating a unique and inspiring multi-sport environment for Para sports where the likes of Jonnie Peacock, Richard Whitehead, Libby Clegg and Sophi Hahn use Loughborough as a training base.
State of the art facilities and strength in depth
A commitment to para sports globally
Loughborough is committed to attracting talented Para athletes from across the globe, as well as championing Parasport worldwide, such as partnering with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and University of Malawi on a ‘Para Sport Against Stigma’ project that aims to change attitudes towards people with disabilities in Africa.
A tradition of champions
Some of the most famous Para athletes in British Para sport started their careers at Loughborough.
- Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE (Para-Athletics)
- Ellie Simmonds (Para-Swimming)
- Dan Greaves (Para-Athletics)
- Jonathan Broom-Edwards (Para-Athletics)
- Amy Conroy (Wheelchair Basketball)
- Clare Griffiths (Wheelchair Basketball)
- Jude Hamer (Wheelchair Basketball)
- Laurie Williams (Wheelchair Basketball)
- Mikey Jones (Para-Swimming)
- Crystal Lane (Para-Cycling)
- Sam Ruddock (Para-Athletics)
- James Hollis (Para-Swimming)
- Emma Hollis (Para-Swimming)