British Paralympic athlete
Richard Whitehead MBE (born 19 July 1976) is a British athlete. He runs with prosthetic legs, as he has a double through-knee congenital amputation.
He set world records for athletes with a double amputation, in both the full and half marathon.[1] At the 2010 Chicago Marathon, he broke his previous world record for athletes with lower-limb amputations, with a time of 2:42:52.[2] Whitehead's marathon record was beaten by 28 seconds by Marko Cheseto at the 2019 Boston Marathon.[3]
Whitehead was unable to compete in the marathon at London 2012 as there was no category for leg amputees, and was refused permission by the IPC to compete against upper-body amputees and so had to turn to sprinting to compete at the 2012 Paralympics, where he won the gold medal in the 200m T42 Athletics event with a world record time of 24.38 seconds.[4][5]
His earlier career was a swimming and dance teacher at Clifton Leisure Centre in Nottingham. He is a former ice sledge hockey player, and competed for the GB team at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin.
Whitehead was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to athletics.[6][7]
Whitehead was appointed the first-ever patron of Sarcoma UK, the bone- and soft-tissue cancer charity, on 28 January 2013.[8]
His name was added to the Nottingham City Transport bus service "Pathfinder 100" on 18 September 2012; the bus links his home village of Lowdham with Southwell and Nottingham.
On 21 April 2013 he competed in the London Marathon coming in 23rd place with a time of 3:15:53.
At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Whitehead won gold in the T42 200 metres[9] and silver in the T42 100 metres, which he shared with Denmark's Daniel Wagner after the pair finished in a dead heat for second.[10]
In 2013, he launched his fundraising campaign, "Richard Whitehead Runs Britain", to run from John O'Groats to Land's End.[11]
At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Whitehead won silver in the T61 200 metres.[12]
In 2022, Whitehead took part in Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted. He was caught 5th, after falling over a gate, and subsequently lying low in a field. His teammate Iwan Thomas successfully made it to the extraction point to win.
On October 13th 2024, Whitehead set the World Record for the Fastest Double Amputee Marathon at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon with a time of 2 hours 41 minutes and 36 seconds!
On December 3rd 2024 Whitehead had a leading role in a three part Docu-Series by Prime Video called Dare to Defy ,He co-hosted the show with Adele Roberts tackling the topics of inclusion and diversity in sport.
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