Lawless (pictured) will direct the annual and quadrennial planning for Paralympic road and track cycling athletes and provide overall leadership to the programme.

He comes to US Paralympics from US Handcycling, where he had served as executive director since 2009.

Sparks served as the performance director and head coach of the Performance United Cycling Centre in Mallorca, Spain, while he previously coached the Irish Olympic track cycling team at the London 2012 Olympic Games and the US team at Beijing 2008.

"I am thrilled and honoured to be joining the team at US Paralympics," said Lawless.

"I look forward to working with our athletes and coaches to continue Team USA's momentum from the London 2012 Paralympic Games."


Sparks was equally delighted.

"I am excited to return to Colorado Springs and to join the USOC family," he said.

"My goal is to work tirelessly to promote and build a world-class training environment that can propel US Para-cycling to become the number one programme in the world in Rio 2016."

Both Lawless and Sparks will take up their positions this month while the have been welcomed by US Paralympics sport performance team leader Julie O'Neill

"The US Paralympics cycling programme is a strong one, but we feel that the addition of Ian and Andy is a true game-changer in the lead-up to Rio 2016," she said.

"We are thrilled to have them both joining our para-cycling team and know they will have a positive impact on our athletes and their performance on the field of play."

Team USA finished second on the cycling medal table at the London 2012 Paralympics behind Britain as they claimed 17 medals, six of which were gold.

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