Paul Sinton-Hewitt

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Paul Sinton-Hewitt
CBE
Born
Peter Paul Sinton-Hewitt

August 1960 (age 65) [1]
Southern Rhodesia
Education Potchefstroom High School for Boys
Known for parkrun
Awards Albert Medal (2019)
Ashoka Fellowship (2016)

Peter Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE (born 1960) [1] is the founder of parkrun. [2] [3] [4]

Contents


Early life and education

Born in Southern Rhodesia, [5] Sinton-Hewitt grew up in South Africa. At age five he was made a ward of the state and then lived at boarding schools. He was educated at Potchefstroom High School and was a crew member supporting Bruce Fordyce in the Comrades Marathon. [6]

He moved to the United Kingdom[ when? ] where he was living when he had a breakdown in 1995. He has said that the personal challenges he has experienced, including bullying during childhood, and the way exercise and activity have helped him deal with them, were influential in motivating him in creating parkrun and its inclusive approach to sport. [7]

Running and Parkrun

Sinton-Hewitt started the Bushy Park Time Trial in 2004 whilst unemployed and unable to run due to an injured leg. [8] It evolved into Parkrun – a free 5-kilometre timed running event that takes place every Saturday morning. The first event took place on 2 October 2004, with 13 entrants. In April 2010 a two-kilometre "Junior Parkrun" format was added at Bushy Park for children aged 4 to 14 (held monthly on Sunday mornings). [9] By summer 2018, each weekend roughly 220,000 to 280,000 people participate in about 1,500 Parkruns globally. [10]

In 2018, Sinton-Hewitt completed the Vitruvian Triathlon. [11]

Awards and honours

Sinton-Hewitt was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to Grassroots Sport Participation" in the 2014 Birthday Honours, [12] and was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2016. [5] In December 2019, he was awarded the Albert Medal by the Royal Society of Arts for building a global participation movement. [13]


References

  1. 1 2 Anon (2025). "Peter Paul SINTON-HEWITT". gov.uk. London: Companies House.
  2. ↑ Waterman, Andy (2014). "The parkrun Story – Paul Sinton-Hewitt". stories.strava.com. Strava. Archived from the original on 11 June 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  3. ↑ Sinton-Hewitt, Paul (2025). One Small Step: the definitive account of a run that became a global movement. Macmillan Publishing. ISBN   978-1035065042. OCLC   1493639451.
  4. ↑ Sinton-Hewitt, Paul (2025). "Athlete history". parkrun.org.uk.
  5. 1 2 "Ashoka Fellow Paul Sinton-Hewitt". Ashoka UK & Ireland. Ashoka (non-profit organization) . Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  6. ↑ "Q&A: parkrun Founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt". mensrunninguk.co.uk. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  7. ↑ Chakrabortty, Aditya (2018). "Forget profit. It's love and fun that drive innovations like Parkrun". theguardian.com. The Guardian . Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  8. ↑ "Interviews » Paul Sinton Hewitt – parkrun". runbundle.com. April 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  9. ↑ "results | Bushy junior parkrun". parkrun.org.uk. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
  10. ↑ "Weekly Totals History". wiki.parkrun.com. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "Vitruvian 2018 Results". resultsbase.com. 8 September 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "Birthday Honours lists 2014". Government of the United Kingdom: HM Government. 14 June 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  13. ↑ Anon (2019). "A Social Movement for the Common Good". thersa.org. London: Royal Society of Arts. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.


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