Paul Sinton-Hewitt

Early life and education He was born in Southern Rhodesia, although South African residents his mother had briefly left the country at the time of his birth.

He moved to the United Kingdom 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.

Running and Parkrun Sinton-Hewitt started the Bushy Park Time Trial in 2004, combining his passion for running with his IT background, whilst unemployed and unable to run due to an injured leg as a means to cope with the challenges he was facing at that time. 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). By summer 2018, each weekend roughly 220,000 to 280,000 people participate in about 1,500 Parkruns globally.

In 2018, Sinton-Hewitt completed the Vitruvian Triathlon.

Author In April 2025, Sinton Hewitt published his first book, One Small Step. A Sunday Times best seller, a story of a simple idea that turned into a global movement, the story of parkrun, told for the very first time from the man who started it all.

In it he documented his challenging upbringing and the genesis of what would become parkrun.

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, and was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2016. In December 2019, he was awarded the Albert Medal by the Royal Society of Arts for building a global participation movement. .

He was awarded an Honorary sports degree by Loughborough University. Paul was made a Doctor of the University at Loughborough’s winter graduation service on Friday 12 December 2025.