By Duncan Mackay

David Weir at end of Paralympic marathon London 2012April 5 - Britain's David Weir, and his long-time coach Jenny Archer, has announced plans to open their own academy to help find future Paralympic athletes.


The six-time Paralympic champion revealed that the Weir Archer Academy will be based at the Kingsmeadow Athletics in Kingston.

"I want this to be my legacy so that London [2012] is not just a one-off," Weir told BBC Sport.

"There are literally thousands of potential athletes out there who are just waiting to be discovered and I want to help with that.

"I'm looking at the future and the Paralympics that are coming up because I want us to have a big squad in Rio [in 2016] and beyond."

The Academy has been set-up as a charity foundation and will be funded by commercial partners, allowing promising youngsters to access money to help them train. 

"It's something we've been talking about for the last two or three years and we really want to be able to give young kids the chance to try out the sport," Archer told BBC Sport. 

"From a wheelchair racer's perspective it can be a really expensive sport with a chair costing between £2,500-£5,000 ($3,800/€2,950-$7,600/€5,900) and the gloves are £100 ($150/€120), so we want to have a selection of equipment readily available for young people to be able to come and try it out."

David Weir in Olympic Stadium London 2012David Weir hopes The Weir Archer Academy will help find a successor to him

Weir's motivation, he claimed, is to ensure that there is a generation of youngsters ready to take his place when he retires. 

"We've done so well and had some great stars in this country with Tanni Grey-Thompson, Shelly Woods, Micky Bushell and myself and I want to see the country staying strong with a new generation coming through," Weir told BBC Sport.

The 33-year-old Weir, who won four gold medals at London 2012 to add to the two he had claimed at Beijing 2008, plans to help out at the Academy two times per week and will also act as a mentor. 

A total of 25 athletes have already been signed-up as the first pupils.

"I'm not there every day as I have to do my own thing and train but when I am there I like to put my arm around them or give them a kick up the backside if they need it," said Weir.

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