When it comes to the Olympics and the Paralympics, it is truly heartening to see the involvement of our Old Boys on so many levels, from athletes to coaches. Perhaps not as widely known however is the immense contribution in this field by Old Boy Sean Tweedy (1981) who, through his 25 years of devoted work to Paralympic athlete classification, has helped advance the legitimacy of disability sport. An internationally accredited classifier in Paralympic Athletics, Sean is recognised worldwide as an authority in Para sport. Sean acknowledges that whilst the current systems of classification used are the best available there is still work to be done to strike the right balance. Sean’s recent work focusses on athletes with severe disabilities. He runs the ParaSTART program at the University of Queensland and he recently wrote persuasively about the importance of ensuring that athletes with severe disabilities are adequately represented at the Paralympic Games.

After leaving Churchie, Sean graduated from Human Movement Studies in 1984 at the University of Queensland (UQ). His qualifications now also include Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Human Movement Studies, both from UQ. Sean has had a career-long commitment to working with people with disabilities by assisting them to lead physically active lives in order to improve their health, fitness, functioning and quality of life. He has worked as an exercise physiologist for the Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association (1985-95) and ran the talent identification programme for the Queensland Academy of Sport (1995-97). In his current role as an Associate Professor at the School of Human Movement at UQ, Sean conducts a teaching, research and community service programme in adapted physical activity. He also runs the Adapted Physical Activity Program which is a community-based program that assists people with disabilities to become more physically active.

Following a schoolboy rugby scrum collapse in 2018, Sean’s son Conor acquired a spinal cord injury and has recently started competing in wheelchair rugby. With Sean having spent his whole professional life working with people with spinal injuries and other severe disabilities, he is clearly in good hands. We wish Conor well in his continuing rehabilitation.

Please click here to read a recent In Queensland article by Michael Blucher in which he interview’s Sean about the outstanding commitment and achievements of Paralympic athletes.

Please click here to read Conor’s story.