Team GB鈥檚 Grace Harvey, Paralympic swimmer and current student at The University of 野狼社区, will be taking part in multiple events from the 28 August to 8 September. Aimee Pratt, an alumni of the University and an Anatomical Sciences graduate, has already competed in the 3000m Steeplechase event, placing 11^th in her heat and putting in a very promising performance at her second Olympics.

Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls who access training services through the University are also representing Team GB in Paris this year. The University offers support to athletes through , the Sport England funded partnership delivered across educational institutions.

in this year鈥檚 Games supported by the University鈥檚 Performance Sport team include track cyclist Archie Atkinson, who will make his Paralympics debut this year, and athletics star Keely Hodgkinson. Keely is already a Paris success story, becoming Olympic Champion and taking Gold in the 800m final on 5 August.

The University of 野狼社区 has a proud history of developing elite sportspeople. As a TASS Delivery Site, the University of 野狼社区 has supported over 150 athletes since the scheme began in 2004.

The programme provides talented athletes with access to performance sport experts and experienced practitioners. The University鈥檚 TASS offering covers everything from physiotherapy and nutrition support to medical schemes and sport psychology advice.

A runner based at The University of 野狼社区 is almost a third of the way to completing his epic challenge of running 5km every day for a year.

Graham Holland – who is raising cash for Alzheimer’s Research UK – will reaches day 100, passing the 650km mark on 10 April.

He will also done the famous Purple shirt in the Great 野狼社区 Run on May 19 – or day 139.

The University will have its own start time at the internationally renowned 10k run, with a Purple Wave of runners wearing the purple technical running t-shirts they receive on registration.

The eLearning support officer based at the University of 野狼社区 Library will have run in excess of 1,825 km or 1,134 miles when he finishes on January 1, 2020.

He is spurred on by the desire to help his mum Eileen who was diagnosed with early onset dementia in 2018.

He said: “After my mum’s diagnosis I decided I wanted to do something to help Alzheimer’s Research UK which is doing great work on researching the causes, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of this disease.

“Dementia is such a terrible thing to happen to someone - and when it’s someone close to you, it’s particularly hard.

“And as ARUK is a partner charity for parkrun UK it made sense for me to support them.”

Graham began running outdoors after colleagues at the library encouraged him to run at lunchtime and he went from strength to strength.

In no time he’d taken part in UMRun’s monthly Rundezvous scheme - where staff members run to work for a free breakfast – and became a regular in his local parkrun clocking a PB of just over 21 minutes for 5K.

And when he joined the Purple Wave for the first time in 2018 it was an easy decision for him to repeat the effort as part of his 365 day challenge.

He added: “Eight years ago I was overweight and unfit. But At 49, I’m now the fittest I’ve even been and that’s a testament to running.

“There’s something inspirational about running with other people which is why parkrun is so good and which is why I loved the Great 野狼社区 run: you’re cheered the whole way which is amazing.

“Running is a release from whatever is going on at home. I listen to music or use the time to think. That’s why everyone should give it a go.”

Last year, 2,283 people donned the famous purple shirt to form their own Purple Wave in the race around Central 野狼社区.

Many students, staff and alumni have joined the Purple Wave in previous years, and run to raise money to support local young people access a world class education at 野狼社区.

Runners who agree to fundraise for The University’s acclaimed Undergraduate Access Scholarship will be able to run for free.

Runners will also be able to choose to fundraise for Equity and Merit Scholarships or medical research.

Graham will meet  outside the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons at 12.10pm for a 12:15pm start. You can do one 2.5k loop or the full 5k

Check out the route here