“We did it together, hand-in-hand. It was a truly unforgettable experience”
Josie Rice, who completed her studies in Sport and Exercise Science at Chichester in 2020, recently trained gymnast Lloyd Martin to become the youngest known person with down syndrome to complete the London Marathon.
Hi Josie, can you tell us a bit about your time at the University of Chichester?
I completed an undergraduate degree in Sport and Exercise Science at the university, then followed up with a Masters in Sport and Exercise Biomechanics. The plan was to go into Sport Science professionally, but the impact of Covid meant there weren’t many opportunities. Instead, I became a teaching assistant in schools, helping children with disabilities. I really enjoyed that so I completed my teacher training, specialising in PE.
How did you meet Lloyd?
I’ve been a gymnast since I was two years old and started coaching aged 14 – I met Lloyd at my club where I was running sessions for children with special needs. I began working one-on-one with him, training him for various gymnastics competitions. Since then, I’ve coached Lloyd weekly, and together we’ve trained for the Special Olympics and the Disability British Championships in 2023 and 2024. Lloyd has medalled in all of these competitions, and I’m incredibly proud to have supported his journey.
And how did you end up running alongside him at the 2025 London Marathon?
In 2023, the Special Olympics approached Lloyd’s mum to see if he would be interested in running the London Marathon. At that point, he hadn’t run more than 5km before! But Lloyd is incredibly motivated by world records, and the first thing he did was search to see if there was one he could break.
He completed his first London Marathon in April 2024 with his mum as his support runner. Lloyd’s had surgery on both knees and previously had a hole in his heart, so it was an incredible achievement for him to complete it. I went along to cheer him on and when I congratulated him at the finish line, I asked if I could be his support runner the following year. Lloyd shook my hand and promised me that I could run it with him. And we did it together, hand-in-hand. It was a truly unforgettable experience!
Where do you see yourself in the future?
I definitely see myself staying in teaching. I also presented to British Gymnastics recently about Lloyd’s story and the work I do to support him and others, and that’s opened up some exciting conversations about disability sport. I’m looking forward to seeing where that might take me.
