Dr Cheri Blauwet, seven-time Paralympic medallist and instructor at Harvard Medical School, will be presenting the first of our public lectures in January 2018.
The lecture will emphasise the importance of engaging all people with an impairment, from grassroots up through elite, in sport as a means of promoting population health.
According to the World Health Organisation, up to 15-20% of our global population are individuals with an impairment. Para sport should be seen as a tool not only for elite competitive opportunities, but also to enhance and enrich opportunities for all individuals with an impairment to lead healthy lifestyles. When we consider sport through the lens of universal design, it is easy to see how we can move the needle for global promotion.
Event details
Wednesday 31 January 2018
Room U0.05 Brockington Building, Loughborough University (see campus map)
Lecture starts at 6pm, refreshments will be provided
To reserve your seat, please email Alison Stanley.
Cheri Blauwet profile
Cheri Blauwet, MD is an Assistant Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where she also serves as the Principle Investigator for the Kelley Adaptive Sports Research Institute. She is a graduate of the Stanford University School of Medicine and completed her residency training in PM&R at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where she served as Chief Resident, followed by a sports medicine fellowship at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Dr Blauwet is also a former Paralympic athlete in the sport of wheelchair racing, competing for the United States Team in three Paralypmic Games (Sydney ’00, Athens ’04, Beijing ’08) and bringing home a total of seven Paralympic medals. She is also a two-time winner of both the Boston and New York City Marathons, and has been nominated for the ESPY Award, the Laureus World Sports Award, and Women’s Sports Foundation Athlete of the Year.
Translating her background as an athlete to the clinic setting, Dr Blauwet now serves as the chairperson of the International Paralympic Committee’s Medical Commission and serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) as well as numerous other leadership roles throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Movement. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Harvard Medical School Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Award and was named one Boston’s “Ten Outstanding Young Leaders” by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. She has become a global advocate for the use of sport and physical activity to promote healthy lifestyles for all individuals with disabilities – exemplified by speaking on the floor of the UN in April, 2015, for the UN International Day of Sport for development and Peace, alongside Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, IOC President Thomas Bach, and IPC President Sir Philip Craven.
She has given many talks throughout the world and was a guest at the White House as well as the keynote speaker at the Boston celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.