Can you introduce yourselves?
Rio Boothe: I’ve recently graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a degree in Sport Business. I’m now studying for my master’s in digital marketing.
I got into Para Pentathlon through an athletics sports scholarship program, where I met Nic. I went to the World Championships in 2023, and won! Then I competed at the Europeans last year, and have been building the sport ever since with Nic and my university.
Dr Nic Robinson: Rio’s in a really cool position because he’s also a Cerebral Palsy ambassador for CP Sport. He does amazing work with that charity to campaign for sport as being a really good thing for people with cerebral palsy – so he’s underselling himself a bit there!
As for me, I’m a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University. My research focuses on elite sports, sports coaching and, at the moment, the development of this new emerging para sport in Para Modern Pentathlon.
Could you explain what Para Modern Pentathlon is?
Dr Nic Robinson: Sure! Para Pentathlon is a parallel version of the Olympic Modern Pentathlon sport. It’s very new; the first international competition was only held in 2017.
It has all the different disciplines like laser run (running combined with laser shooting), swimming, obstacle course racing, and fencing – it’s quite a full package! Athletes can also compete in individual disciplines. Laser Run in particular is the largest mass participation para event at the moment.
Across the Para–Pentathlon, there are seven distinct classification sports classes: five for physical impairments, one for visual impairments, and one for intellectual impairments based on Virtus.
So, if someone is interested in being this multi-master of sports, there are lots of competitions within the UK. That’s it in a package!
Why did you get involved in Para Pentathlon?
Rio Boothe: Honestly, I never did much sport growing up during high school – I’ve been playing catch–up since I started athletics. When I was presented with the idea to compete in this brand-new sport, it was really exciting! I was also excited by the fact that I could go on to compete for my country and represent my university.
The best part about it is that, although it takes me a bit longer to do things and to figure things out, I’ve gained confidence thanks to the adaptations and coaching from Nic and the team. I’ve been going into situations thinking, “I don’t know if I can do this…” but I come out with a rewarding sense of achievement, and thinking “When’s the next session, what are we doing next?”
“I’ve been going into situations thinking, “I don’t know if I can do this…” but I come out with a rewarding sense of achievement, and thinking “when’s the next session, what are we doing next?”
Dr Nic Robinson: I think my biggest motivator is actually my sister. She has quite a rare physical condition.
Sport is amazing and it can take you all over the world, make you friends, and Pentathlon exposes you to different types of physical challenges. Part of me felt that my sister didn’t have those opportunities. When you talk about pentathlon, it’s often seen as an upper-class white man’s sport. But times are changing. The reason I became so passionate about setting up a para version was to make the sport inclusive and accessible for people who may have underlying health conditions and those who may have never even heard of pentathlon before.
I think having a multi-sport with so many opportunities, and being creative and imaginative with what we can do with it, makes it more exciting! Two years ago, we got a small pot of funding at Liverpool John Moores University to build a team, where Rio was part of that recruitment effort, to showcase the event at the World Championships in Bath in 2023.
It was amazing to see how people’s views changed when they saw athletes with disabilities competing in a sport that had never included them before. This made me think: why aren’t we doing this on a bigger scale?
What are your Para Pentathlon goals?
Rio Boothe: We’ve got the Student Games coming up in Oxford – I’m hoping to perform well there. * Later this year are the World and European Championships. I’m hoping to build on what I’ve done previously.
I’m partly aiming for medals, but it’s also about meeting new people and having that social aspect, and enjoying a brand-new sport as well. The same reason I got into athletics is the same reason I got into pentathlon. Starting a brand-new sport, I want to see how I can adapt, and how far I can push my body. I am looking forward to this new challenge.
One challenge has been improving my coordination. Because of my cerebral palsy, it has never been the best. It turns out I can shoot. But, when my coordination isn’t the best, being able to run straight and shoot at the target correctly in a timely manner has been a challenge. It’s been good to figure out I can do it, and it has been improving.
The Student Games took place on the 22nd of March – Rio came first in his category!
Dr Nic Robinson: I think the biggest thing for me is having that co-creation piece with the athletes. There are certain boxes we need to tick to make sure that we are compliant as a Paralympic sport. But away from that level, there’s also the level of mass participation, inclusion, and awareness, from grassroots all the way up.
I think there’s a bit of a challenge in the UK just to educate clubs and people to be more open-minded. Just creating opportunities for a wider population to get involved in the sport via the events we run, I think that’s the biggest achievement. Even though it sounds really simple to say, it is difficult to achieve.
If you build something, demonstrate it, and showcase it – like we did at the World Champs in 2023 – visually seeing it massively helps persuade people. They start asking, “Why aren’t we doing this? This is incredible.” Having athletes side by side in our opening or closing ceremonies is something we should celebrate. It showcases diversity across a sport that has historically been funnelled into elitism – focused solely on podium finishes.
We can definitely break down barriers and make it more inclusive across the board, and that’s really exciting for me.
How do you go about overcoming the challenges of accessibility to sport for those with disabilities?
Rio Boothe: One of the biggest barriers, I’d say, is a lack of understanding to start with. It’s about asking the athlete first – not just looking at them and focusing on what they can’t do but instead looking at what they can do.
Another issue is the lack of awareness, specifically promotion on social media from Pentathlon GB. They promote all their able-bodied championships, but they never promote the para side of things. We’re sort of tagged along at the back of it when we should be promoted alongside them. As Nic mentioned earlier, co-creation is key, and not promoting para and able-bodied athletes together is one of the biggest challenges and barriers we face right now.
Dr Nic Robinson: Pentathlon is a challenge full–stop, whether you’re able-bodied or a para-athlete because you have five distinct skills and key tasks to achieve performance outcomes.
One major challenge is creating mass participation and inclusivity through education and awareness. Another challenge lies in research around classification. We’re using the classifications from the original disciplines, and layering them on top of each other, to ensure that classifications are fair.
The UK is miles ahead of other national federations in terms of disability awareness. But the acceptable way of doing things moving forward needs to be completely open. With [Modern Pentathlon] BUCS and Para Student Games coming up*, I think that’s an amazing opportunity to show how integrated we can be. It’s a really good demonstration of having mixed teams, people who are able-bodied and disabled athletes making up the same team. I think it’s a really powerful statement saying, “Why shouldn’t we be doing this?” This is about having fun doing sport.
Looking ahead, are there any hopes that you have for the sport?
Rio Boothe: Hopefully, it gets to the Paralympics – that’s sort of the main aim if you want to talk long-term.
I’d also love to see more fun events happening – like open meets throughout the season where we can travel and compete in smaller events like obstacle course racing or fencing competitions. It would make for a proper season instead of just focusing on qualifiers.
And having more national competitions would help too – not just qualifiers but open meets specifically for para-athletes. Of course, this requires getting more people involved – it has to spiral from everyone doing their part – but that’s what I’d like to see.
Dr Nic Robinson: If we’re talking about Great Britain specifically, I think having a stronger national presence with a variety of athletes from different impairment categories would be fantastic.
Internationally, it’s about engaging more national federations to take it up and creating a para pathway. And for them to be as excited as we are to introduce the sport, breaking down those conceptual barriers of what the sport can do. We need competitive classes on an international stage – that’s a massive step forward for having a Paralympic spot as well. We need athletes coming from all over the world competing on one stage. That’s what makes sports exciting! You need that competitive edge, that social interaction with strong competitors and showing who’s the strongest.
Do you have any advice for people who are interested in taking part in para pentathlon?
Rio Boothe: For me, sport in general has helped my disability. Whether it’s athletics or pentathlon, my condition has gotten better. I’ve become a lot stronger in the gym. I’m able to lift a lot of weight, and transfer that to sport, and transfer it to things I’m doing outside of sport.
“Sport in general has helped my disability. Whether it’s athletics or pentathlon, my condition has gotten better”
In terms of the social aspect, you meet people with disabilities, and you’ll meet people with your disability. In high school, I was the only person I knew who had a disability or cerebral palsy. In para sport, I met so many people with my disability. Being able to connect with that person on a personal level, as they know exactly what you’re going through.
The travel part of it is great – you get to travel for training camps and random places in the country I’ve never been to and just have fun competing and meeting people.
Dr Nic Robinson: This isn’t meant to be intimidating as a sport. This is a sport that any university-aged student with a disability can come to try. Because it is so new, we want to push participation, and we need people to buy into the sport. It doesn’t matter if you don’t go to an international competition! It’s about creating little community cliques that have sport as a vector for friendships, travel and seeing the world.
The events across the UK especially, it might look scary on paper, but people are really friendly and inclusive. We just want more people to come and give it a go. Don’t be scared. You may find someone who has the same background as you, and it may massively help how you see sport and participation.
