Last week I presented the main findings of my Doctoral Thesis at the International Paralympic Committee’s Annual Classification Meeting. More than 150 people attended the meeting, representing National Paralympic Committees and International Federations across the Paralympic Movement.

Yesterday, I led a disability workshop for Sports Management degree students at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social.

We covered models of disability, the history of the Paralympic Games, nations winning medals at the Paralympic Games (including Russia!) and, of course, intentional misrepresentation.

Here it is❗😋 The full bhuna ❗🍴

My PhD thesis is now available to read via @lborouniversity.bsky.social
library repository.

63,877 words on intentional misrepresentation (cheating classification) in Para sport! 🤓

doi.org/10.26174/the...

This article in Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly is my first ever citing🥳! Gowans et al. (2025) off and running!

doi.org/10.1123/apaq...

Rafael Lima Kons from the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil, includes intentional misrepresentation as one of the challenges Para Judo faces. 🥋

Last week, I was at the European Youth Para Games supporting Daniel Harding and Wongyeong Jang deliver classification education .

With more than 600 athletes, all under the age of 24, this was the ideal opportunity for @paralympics.org to deliver it's outreach programme.

Here we go! My first ever published article in a journal! 🙌

🙏 Thank you to the 29 athletes, support staff, and classifiers, who completed 3 rounds of an online survey, prioritising actions to reduce the threat of cheating
classification in Para sport.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

On Saturday, I really enjoyed supporting the @paralympicsgb.bsky.social stand at the Scottish Disability Sport National Exhibition. A great event despite the weather! #BeTheFuture

On Saturday I had the pleasure of catching up with some long-standing friends at the @paralympicsgb.bsky.social
inaugural athlete reunion.

I received my Recognition Token from ParalympicsGB’s Chief Executive Dave Clarke, and had great chats with Paralympians old and new!

📢two weeks to go to the first ever @paralympicsgb.bsky.social reunion event🥳
📅Saturday 31 May 📅
📍Stirling Court Hotel & Conference Centre, FK9 4LA 🌍

🤔not got your invite yet? rsvp to: shorturl.at/SUhD8 📧

Paralympians can claim up to £50 travel expenses (usual ts + cs apply)

I successfully defended my thesis this week and passed my viva exam. Throughout my PhD journey, the account @thephdplace.bsky.social helped keep me going. If you're PhDing or thinking of starting - give them a follow.

🥳 Yesterday, I successfully defended my thesis and passed my viva exam! 👨‍🎓

Many thanks to @drbenpowis.bsky.social and Emma Pullen for a firm but fair exam, as well as to my supervisory team of Daniel Rhind, Serhat Yilmaz, Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey, and Emma Beckman.

Yasmina and I crammed a lot into our 45-minute conversation!

We covered the importance of disabled children playing sport #EqualPlay @paralympicsgb.bsky.social, what it feels like to be classified, and why some athletes might try to cheat classification.

youtu.be/0J3DB2HS3OY?...

Last week I lectured on conceptualising disability sport.

I took 2nd year Loughborough Uni undergraduates from how society perceived disability in biblical times, to 2024 Paralympic Games, and Paralympians on Strictly Come Dancing!

Namechecks included Drs. Marx, Foucault, Guttman, and Oliver.

I'm pretty fortunate to have the Wheelchair Curling Mixed Doubles World Championship just down the road from me in North Ayrshire.
Best of luck to Scotland in the quarter finals this morning.

📣Yesterday I submitted my thesis! 📣

🙂Looking forward to defending in it May🙂

I make a newsletter on international disability news and I need your help.

The two biggest challenges for a project like this are visibility and financing.

Please share, to help others find it.

And if you're comfortable, it runs on pay-what-you-can.

www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/open...

As the profile of @theparalympicgames.bsky.social continues to grow, we need to get better at explaining classification to our audience.

Here's a wee 2-minute video that I did with
@lborouniversity.bsky.social - using Wheelchair Rugby as an example.

youtu.be/Av7WoeeM0RI?...

📣@theparalympicgames.bsky.social are recruiting:

• Head of Classification
• Classification Research Project Senior Manager
• Classification Manager
• Vision Impairment Classification Manager

Job descriptions and application process are at the bottom of this link: www.paralympic.org/careers