Rebecca Foulsham wins the 2023 PARA SPORT Citi Volunteer Award

Rebecca Foulsham, a classifier from New Zealand, has won a global online vote to become the Citi Volunteer Award at the 2023 PARA SPORT Awards.

The 2023 PARA SPORT Awards celebrate those whose efforts have contributed to strengthening the impact of Para sports worldwide. In addition to awards for summer and winter sport athletes, they recognise the work of coaches and volunteers.

The Citi Volunteer Award was the only 2023 PARA SPORT Award that had a public poll, and there were thousands of votes cast from across the globe. The award recognises someone who has given up their own time to support the Paralympic Movement, such as a volunteer, classifier, technical official, event support, or IPC member support.  

Rebecca, a physiotherapist by profession, with experience in neurology, general medicine, and rehabilitation, has been involved in Para sport for over 25 years. She is a classifier, a trained professional who assesses the functional abilities of athletes with disabilities and assigns them to different sport classes.

Reacting to the news of her win Rebecca said: “I am incredibly humbled to be the recipient of the 2023 Citi Volunteer Award. I stand on the shoulders of so many incredible Para sport volunteers, particularly classifiers, and I am proud to be able to represent them.

“Supporting Para athletes and Para sports to be the best they can be is my goal and it is truly incredible to feel that support back. Thank you to everyone who voted and in particular to the athletes, coaches, staff, and classifiers in the organisations I have worked alongside over the course of 2022-23, especially World Para Athletics, Paralympics New Zealand, Athletics New Zealand, NZ Defence, and Invictus Games Foundation.” 

Rebecca’s journey as a classifier began when she was watching her husband, Gavin, a Paralympian, training on the track. She was approached by Paralympics New Zealand (NZ), who needed a new classifier for athletics. She agreed to take on the role, despite having little knowledge of the classification system. 

Over three decades Rebecca has classified athletes at various levels of competition, from national to regional to international. She has been a key contributor to Para sport development in New Zealand across multiple sports during this time, and internationally she helps develop and update classification rules and educates other classifiers.

In 2022, Rebecca, who lives in the small town of Havelock North in New Zealand’s North Island, was appointed Head of Classification globally for World Para Athletics. 

Across 2022 and 2023 Rebecca showed great commitment by being a classifier at six national competitions and ten international events in five countries across three continents.

Paralympics New Zealand nominated Rebecca for the award, which is the first winner from the 2023 PARA SPORT Awards to be announced. The awards are being organised alongside the IPC General Assembly on 27 September 2023 in Manama, Bahrain.  Greg Warnecke, Paralympics New Zealand CEO and General Secretary will collect the award on Rebecca’s behalf in Bahrain, before arranging for the award to be presented to her at a future point.

Also on the shortlist for the Citi Volunteer Award were James Chiutsi of Malawi, and Tor Undheim of Norway.