Student paracyclist Louis in Rio for Paralympics

Student paracyclist and world record-holder Louis Rolfe is in Rio preparing for the Paralympic Games 2016 after two weeks training at the Wales National Velodrome in Newport.

The 19 year-old Cambridge Regional College Sport Studies student, who was inspired to try competitive track cycling after watching the London Games in 2012, will be making his debut alongside some of the biggest names in Paralympic sport.

He will be competing in the team sprint alongside Jody Cundy and Jon-Allan Butterworth, a discipline in which the trio broke the world record and won gold in at the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships. He will also compete in the individual pursuit on the track and time-trial on the road.

Louis, who has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus after being born 10 weeks premature, said his selection for the Games was a dream come true.

“I am over the moon to have made the final team for the Paralympic Games in Rio. It’s been a dream of mine ever since I started cycling to be selected for a Paralympics. I’m really looking forward to competing against the best in the world and showing what I’m capable of,” he said.

“I have been working hard to improve over the past three and a half years, and the support from the staff at CRC has been brilliant – they have been so understanding about my training and commitments to my cycling. They provide a fantastic opportunity for me to carry on with my education but follow my cycling dream too. I hope to do everyone proud in Rio.”

CRC principal Mark Robertson said: “We are very, very proud to have a student from Cambridge Regional College representing his country in the Paralympics, and I’m absolutely delighted that Louis’s talent and hard work have been recognised by his selection for Rio 2016.”

To read more about Louis and his sporting achievements, see www.britishcycling.org.uk/gbcyclingteam/new/bio/Louis_Rolfe

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