UWS support helps Tokyo medal success for Gordon

UWS is proud to support wheelchair tennis star Gordon Reid, who won two medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic games.

Gordon prepared for the conditions at the Tokyo games using the University of the West of Scotland’s cutting-edge extreme environment laboratory at Lanarkshire campus.

Playing with Alfie Hewett, Gordon won silver in the men’s doubles event in Tokyo, losing out in a final tie-break to the French pair Peifer and Houdet. After the match Gordon said on Twitter: “A heartbreaking end to our doubles tournament here in Tokyo. We fought until the end and left everything out on court but just couldn’t get over the finish line. Alfie, it has been a pleasure as always. Thank you for your commitment, passion and support on this journey.”

The following day, Gordon went on to win bronze in the singles event with victory over his doubles partner Hewett. Gordon tweeted: “Finishing the week as Paralympic Men’s Singles Bronze Medallist. A brutal match for everybody involved after last night’s emotions. It was a pleasure to share the podium with the GOAT of men’s wheelchair tennis Shingo Kunieda & one of my oldest and best friends in the wheelchair tennis world Tom Egberink.”

“Congratulations on your achievements boys. The amount of love and support I’ve felt over here from back home has been overwhelming, I can’t thank everybody enough.”

The professional wheelchair tennis player undertook a two-week programme at the laboratory to help him prepare for the extreme heat and humidity of a Japanese summer. He undertook exercises inside the chamber using an upper-body ergometer and was supported by UWS’s Chris Easton, Professor of Exercise Physiology and the Head of Sport and Exercise at UWS.

UWS’s environmental chamber 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, such as the Games in Tokyo.

The chamber controls a number of variables to create extreme conditions, with temperature ranging from 10 to 40 degrees Celsius, altitude from zero to 5,000 metres above sea level, and humidity between 10 to 90 per cent.