Celebrating Lords Paralympians and Olympians

Paralympians

Baroness Grey-Thompson

Competed in five Paralympics between 1988 and 2004, winning eleven gold medals, four silver medals and one bronze medal in athletics. Baroness Grey-Thompson is a member of the Lords National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee, and campaigns on disability rights and getting people in the UK active.

Listen to Baroness Grey-Thompson talk about how she uses her experience in the House of Lords in one of our recent podcast episodes.

Lord Holmes of Richmond

Competed in four Paralympics between 1988 and 2000 winning nine gold medals, five silver medals and one bronze medal in swimming.

Lord Holmes of Richmond was also LOCOG's Director of Paralympic Integration, leading the team that organised the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Baroness Masham of Ilton

Won a gold medal in the 25 metres breaststroke at the 1960 Paralympic Games in Rome, a gold medal in women's doubles table tennis at the 1964 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, and also competed at the 1968 Paralympic Games in Tel Aviv.

Olympians

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem

Competed for Great Britain in the 200 metres and the final of the 4x100 metres relay at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

View Lord Campbell of Pittenweem's vest and blazer displayed at an exhibition in Parliament in 2010.

Lord Coe  

Won a gold medal for the 1500m and silver medal for the 800m at both the Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 Olympics. In addition to his achievements on the track, Lord Coe played an integral role in London 2012 as chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).  

View Lord Coe’s Olympic running shoes displayed at an exhibition in Parliament in 2010.

Lord Moynihan

Won a silver medal for rowing, as cox of the Great Britain eights, at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Lord Moynihan is a member of the Lords National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee and previously sat on the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Committee. He has also pressed the government on a range of sports related topics in the House of Lords through written questions and spoken contributions. 

View Lord Moynihan’s medal displayed at an exhibition in Parliament in 2010

National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee

The Lords National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee was appointed to consider the effectiveness of current sport and recreation policies and initiatives, and the case for a national plan for sport and recreation.

Read more details and the latest updates from the committee.  

Sport debates in the House of Lords

Since the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, there have been over 1000 references to sport in the House of Lords and 12 dedicated debates covering a range of sports-related subjects. These include: elite sport funding, women’s sport, sport and recreational facilities, performance-enhancing drugs and the impact of sport to the wellbeing of society. 

View a list of debates on Lords Hansard

2012 Legacy

Following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, a House of Lords select committee was set up to consider the strategic issues for regeneration and sporting legacy from the games.

Their subsequent ‘Keeping the flame alive?’ report, published in November 2013, made conclusions and recommendations to the government and Lord Mayor of London on a range of issues. These included physical education and school age children, high performance sport, and the legacy of the facilities and regeneration.

In commending the report to the House of Lords, Chair of the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Committee, Lord Harris of Haringey said ‘the committee was convinced by the evidence we received that more coherence is needed if the huge and very real legacy opportunities are not to be missed.’   

Read more Keeping the flame alive? Lords debates olympic and paralympic legacy - UK Parliament