The press release from the annual meeting can be read here: www.paralympic.org/news/2025%20...

A healthy group discussion followed: using video evidence to police intentional misrepresentation without compromising data protection or data storage; most attempts at intentional misrepresentation are managed by the classifiers – it’s a minority of athletes that proceed to a disciplinary process.

Key points of the presentation: the relationship between knowledge of the classification process and the level of trust placed in it; the lack of opportunity to report concerns; and the need to enforce the sanctions that exist for those who have been found to have intentionally misrepresented.

🙏Thank you to my supervisors Prof Daniel Rhind, Dr Serhat_Yilmaz, Prof Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey (all from
@lborouniversity.bsky.social and Dr Emma Beckman from University of Queensland. Thank you to the athletes, support staff, and classifiers who completed a survey and agreed to be interviewed. 🙏
5/5

4️⃣actions proposed:

1. Compulsory education for athletes with learning outcomes of: athlete responsibilities; a culture of honesty and fair play.
2. Video recording the classification process
3. Longer bans for wrongdoing
4. More support for classifiers

4/5

Findings:

· Minority of athletes surveyed were confident that a classifier would notice if an athlete tried to mislead
· Athlete capacity to intentionally misrepresent is dependent on impairment type
· Support staff uniquely placed to spot intentional misrepresentation

3/5

The thesis adopts a Pragmatic Approach as its research paradigm and takes a Social Relational position on disability 📚

3️⃣separate but related studies – a bespoke online survey, interviews, and a Delphi survey. 2/5

*et al. are Prof Daniel Rhind, Dr Serhat Yilmaz, and Prof Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey from @lborouniversity.bsky.social, and Dr Emma Beckman from The University of Queensland.

The article is from my PhD thesis, so co-authors are my supervisors: Daniel Rhind, Serhat Yilmaz, Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey (all from Loughborough University) and Emma Beckman (University of Queensland).

The press release from the event is here: paralympics.org.uk/articles/par...

This video from @draminayonis.bsky.social was a big help when preparing for the viva. Excellent advice on how to re-read your thesis and anticipate some of the questions that the examiners will ask.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yliT...

Here's a one-minute teaser🗣️