Academic designs second prosthetic limb for Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

A Bournemouth University lecturer is helping a disabled cyclist to achieve his dream of representing his country at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

Dr Bryce Dyer is helping an Irish Paralympian represent the country for a second time. He will design a prosthetic leg for cyclist, Colin Lynch, to use at The Rio 2016 Paralympics; he helped create a leg for Colin at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Dr Dyer, a Senior Lecturer in Product Design has created the concept of the leg’s design and developed its aerodynamic profile. 

It is the second project he is working on for athletes attempting to qualify for Rio 2016, having also worked with cyclist Craig Preece.

Bryce is working with Pace Rehabilitation who also built the first prosthetic leg for Colin in 2012. He said: “Prosthetic limbs designed for elite sport are very different to those used for everyday tasks and everything about this project is about performance whilst remaining comfortable for the athlete to use.

“It’s great to see my work contributing to athletes competing at the sharp edge of competition, and there isn’t anything higher than Rio 2016. This project is also really rewarding professionally but I’ve spent most of my life in competitive sport myself so I really buy into the no compromise attitude projects like this need.”

It’s Bryce who created the design of the leg and Pace who build the design. “Pace undertakes the highly skilled fitting of the leg to the athlete whereas I do the design work of the limb shape itself. We’re all trying to help the athletes as best we can and our emphasis is purely about getting the best possible result for them.”

Colin Lynch represented Ireland in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London finishing 4th in the track pursuit and 5th in the Road TT. Now his fundraising for a new leg is complete, he is looking forward to seeing the project come to life. He said on his blog: “The project is now just getting started. I've seen the prototype designs and they are spectacular. Over the coming weeks and months Pace will be testing several new designs to see which one provides the best aerodynamic benefit – then it will be time to build one for me.”