Wheelchair sport: pushing from Atlanta to Rio, the sports science journey

In order to develop and implement safe and effective training programmes for a wheelchair athlete an understanding of the physical impairment is essential. This article will focus on the wheelchair athlete to describe how the training prescription for the non-disabled may be challenged in terms of its use for athletes with a spinal cord injury (SCI); describe the approach taken to optimise wheelchair set-up and finally describe how a multi-disciplinary sports science team prepares athletes for competition in the heat.