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Olympic legend Lord Sebastian Coe opens Loughborough’s pioneering Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel

Olympic legend Lord Sebastian Coe opens Loughborough’s pioneering Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel

Double Olympic champion Lord Sebastian Coe officially opened the new Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel at Loughborough University on Friday 9th November.

The development – which is managed by Imago Venues, the University’s award-winning conference, hotel and events brand – is the first of its kind in the UK, offering an holistic support environment for individuals and teams at both elite professional and dedicated amateur levels. It has been developed in partnership with UK Sport, Sport England and the English Institute of Sport.

Loughborough’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Allison, said:

“I am delighted that our Chancellor, Lord Sebastian Coe, one of Great Britain’s true sporting legends, has officially opened the Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel at Loughborough. The new facility offers something unique within the UK and will undoubtedly help us to reinforce our position as the country’s leading university for sport.”

The Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel has 44 twin ensuite bedrooms, including 20 cutting-edge altitude rooms. These rooms allow athletes to adjust the climatic conditions, enabling them to sleep in environments that simulate altitudes of up to 5,000m (the equivalent of Everest base camp) while being able to maintain their regular low-altitude training programmes. The ‘sleep high, train low’ method is believed to have a positive impact on athletes’ performance capability.

Every bedroom is accessible and eight of the rooms, including four altitude rooms, are fully DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant.

The Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel also has a specialist nutrition room to meet athletes’ complex dietary requirements.

Bespoke packages are available to provide guests with access to the University’s world-class on-campus sports facilities, including the indoor athletics centre and outdoor stadium, sports halls and all-weather pitches, a 50-metre swimming pool, squash, badminton and netball courts, an indoor tennis centre and outdoor courts, and state of the art fitness centres.

Athletes are also able to benefit from the world-renowned performance support services at Loughborough University, including a performance laboratory, a sports medicine and physiotherapy clinic, and expertise in strength and conditioning, performance analysis, physiology, and sport, exercise and health sciences.

 Kay England, Chief Executive of Imago Venues, said of the new development:

“The Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel is a fantastic addition to the portfolio of Loughborough University venues that Imago manages. We are very proud to have worked in partnership with Sport England, UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport to create this unique centre of sporting excellence here on our campus.”

Bookings for the Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel can be made online at www.eliteathletecentre.co.uk


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