London 2012

Paralympics lead for Dr Nick Webborn

Published 10 July 2012

Dr Nick Webborn, principal research fellow at the University of Brighton, has been appointed chief medical officer to ParalympicsGB for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. During the games in August and September 2012, Dr Webborn will be based at the Paralympic Village in Stratford, London. Together with his medical team, he will deliver support and treatment to British athletes competing in the twenty different sports.

This will be the first time that London has hosted the Paralympic Games although the first Stoke Mandeville Games, the precursor to the Paralympic Games, was held on the opening day of the 1948 Olympics in London.

Commenting on his appointment Nick said it is a great privilege to be offered the role. ”I am really happy to be leading the care of our athletes in London. A home games will be very special.“

Dr Webborn has worked with elite Olympic and Paralympic sportsmen since 1992 and has previously held the post of medical officer for the GB team at Atlanta, Nagano and Sydney and a member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Medical Commission. He will be overseeing the core medical support team and preparation camps, the first of which will be held at the University of Bath in January 2010.

These preparation camps will enable medical staff to get to know the athletes and begin planning the medical services necessary throughout the games.

The Director of Performance for ParalympicsGB, Penny Briscoe was delighted to announce that Dr Nick Webborn’s contract had been extended and that he will be the ParalympicsGB chief medical advisor through to London 2012. She stressed that this key post will include both strategic and clinical lead roles for ParalympicsGB and will act as a trigger for a whole raft of other activities including identification of camps and Games core staff.

Dr Webborn led the International Paralympic Committee's injury surveillance programme at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver where he collected information on how athletes become injured and how these injuries can be avoided.