Christopher Holmes, Baron Holmes of Richmond is a British visually-impaired former swimmer and life peer in the House of Lords. He won a total of nine gold, five silver, and one bronze medal at the Paralympic Games. Holmes represented Great Britain at four Paralympic Games between 1988 and 2000 and is the only British Paralympic swimmer to win six gold medals at a single Games. After retiring from swimming he worked as a journalist and solicitor. He was Director of Paralympic Integration for the London Olympics and it was announced that he would be elevated to the House of Lords in August 2013, as a Conservative Party Peer but he is currently unaffiliated.
Holmes was already a good swimmer with the goal of representing his country, when he became blind as a teenager due to Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, a genetic eye disorder. He joined a Birmingham club where he committed to the same training regime as other sighted swimmers aspiring to the Olympics. Holmes was a member of the Great Britain swimming team from 1985-2002 and Captain for 5 years. He qualified for the Seoul 1988 Paralympic Games, where he won two silver medals and a bronze. At the Barcelona 1992 Paralympics, four years later, he gathered a record six gold medals, and a silver. He went on to take another three gold medals and a silver at Atlanta in 1996 and finally one more silver at Sydney in 2000. He is often described as "one of Britain's greatest Paralympians". He also became a Paralympic activist, in particular drawing attention to the issues of equal accommodations and facilities for Paralympic athletes. In addition to the Games Chris swam at 2 World Championships and 7 European Championships, held 7 world records, 10 European records and 12 GB records.
Professional life
Holmes has been involved with various UK Sports Bodies. He was a Member of the Implementation Board for the UK Sports Institute, from 1999–2000, seeking to build a world class sports institute to rival that of Australia. From 2001-2004 he sat on the UK Sport Awards Panel, responsible for the funding of elite Olympic and Paralympic athletes. From 2005-2013 he was a member of the Board of UK Sport, responsible for the funding for the Olympic and Paralympic athletes set to compete at the London 2012 Games. Holmes chaired the Audit and Risk Committee for seven years. He was also a member of the Mission 2012 Panel. Holmes was also an Ambassador to London 2012 Olympic Bid 2003–2005. From 2002 Holmes was a Commissioner for the Disability Rights Commission where he also sat on the Legal Committee and Audit Committee. Key legal successes included the Ross V Ryan Air Court of Appeal Decision, Roads V Central Trains and Archibald V Fife Council. Between 2002-2009 Holmes worked as a Solicitor specializing in commercial, employment and pensions law at Ashurst, London. In August 2009, he was named the Director of Paralympic Integration for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in London. In 2012 the UK delivered the largest Paralympics ever, including more athletes from more nations competing, highest ticket sales and the most extensive media coverage of any previous Paralympics. In 2013 he was appointed as Non-executive Director to the Equality and Human Rights Commission where one of his projects was working with Ofcom and the Creative Diversity Network to launch a new guide to the law for the broadcast industry providing clarity about initiatives and actions to promote diversity. In 2015 he was appointed as special adviser on Diversity and Inclusion to the Civil Service and in 2016 he was appointed as Non-executive Director to the Channel 4 Board He is also Chancellor at BPP University. Holmes has campaigned against 'shared space' street design, publishing a report in 2015 that found shared space to be unpopular with two-thirds of users. Holmes has been a member of House of Lords Select Committees on Digital Skills, Social Mobility, Financial Exclusion and Artificial Intelligence and speaks often in debates. He has also introduced a Private Members Bill to prohibit unpaid work experience exceeding four weeks which has been described as a ban on unpaid internships. In November 2017 he published a report called 'Distributed Ledger Technologies for Public and Private Good: leadership, collaboration and innovation' in which he makes a 'call to action' for collaboration between academia, government and industry to develop the potential of DLT. Holmes speaks regularly at corporate, public sector, community and charity events across the UK and worldwide.
Awards
In 1992 Holmes was Midlands Today Sports Personality of the year and Bass Midlander of the year. The following year he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 New Year Honours for services to swimming for the disabled. The SAF Paul Zetter Award was presented to Holmes in 1996 and in 1997 he was Sports Personality of the year Variety Club of GB. On 4 July 2012 he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Bath University.
Parliament
On 13 September 2013, Holmes was created a life peer taking the title Baron Holmes of Richmond, of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. He made his maiden speech on 28 November 2013 in a debate on the Economy: Broadcast Media and has also contributed to debates on the Budget, Employment, Education, the World Wide Web, the legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and pensions. He sits on the Digital Skills Select Committee which will make recommendations and report by early 2015.
