Wednesday 07 09 2022
Paralympian Scott Meenagh has inspired the next generation of sports professionals as part of University of the West of Scotland’s vibrant programme of Freshers Week activities.
In an interview with Chris Easton, Professor of Exercise Physiology and the Head of the Division of Sport and Exercise at UWS, Scott told new sports students about his inspiring journey from paratrooper to Paralympian and how UWS’s Lanarkshire campus facilities helped him prepare for the Winter Games.
Scott was just 21 years old when he lost both his legs above the knee during an incident serving in Afghanistan. He told students about his time as a paratrooper in the Helmand Province and the lifechanging incident stepping on an improvised explosive device.
Scott movingly discussed his recovery and how he turned to sport, which he said gave him a purpose in life again. He is now a GBR Para Nordic Sit Skier and produced his best-ever Paralympic result when he finished sixth in the long-distance biathlon race at the Beijing 2022 Paralympics.
After Scott was unable to join his teammates at the Italian Alps for training ahead of the Games, his coaches suggested he used UWS’s state-of-the-art environmental chamber to undertake altitude training.
Commenting on his experience using UWS’s facilities and working with the team, Scott said: “I’d like to thank Chris and the team here at UWS. When we asked if we could use their facilities due to me being unable to get out to training, they never even blinked before they said yes. I explained the situation and Chris offered me carte blanche access to the laboratory and the extreme environments chamber here at the University.
“I spent the week prior to Beijing at UWS’s Lanarkshire campus instead of the Alps doing training, which, at the time would’ve been the desired option. But I came into the lab every single day and did my focused work – the guys were fantastic to the point where they were even coming in on a Saturday morning to open the lab.
Those are the things I will never, ever forget. The journey was so collective. People really helped me get to where I wanted to go.
Scott Meenagh
Commenting on Scott’s Freshers Week speech and what it will mean for the new students, Professor Chris Easton said: “There are so many lessons he shared that are important for our students to learn. Hearing about some of the things Scott spoke about today, particularly his interactions with his coaches, his teammates, even his platoon when he was in the military, would’ve been really interesting to our students. It makes them consider some of the things they’ll need to think about as professionals working with people in sport and over the course of their programmes.”
While Scott visited the campus, he also officially opened and unveiled UWS’s sports labs as being the first in Scotland to be accredited by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science (BASES).
BASES is a professional standard and provides a mark of quality assurance to clients, research funders and the wider community, illustrating that a laboratory has undergone meticulous inspection and that high professional standards of practice have been achieved.
Amongst some of the state-of-the-art laboratories at UWS to receive this seal of approval is the environmental chamber that Scott used in his training, which is one of only two in Scotland and the only one in the west of Scotland. It replicates environmental extremes, from walking in the desert to standing on one of the world’s highest mountains and can be used by athletes to improve physical performance in the run up to large sporting events.
Commenting on the new BASES accreditation, Professor Easton said: “We’ve operated at a high level for a number of years and its testament to the standards we’ve set in our laboratory spaces that we have received this accreditation.
We’ve worked with Scott and a range of other elite athletes over the years and hopefully our new accreditation gives them and their teams the confidence that we are providing not only state-of-the-art training facilities but also high-quality, robust performance data to help them improve.
Professor Chris Easton
Find out about the UWS facilities and our BASES accreditation here.