Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson has been appointed a cross-bench peer, it has been announced.
Britain’s most successful Paralympian will sit in the House of Lords along with former civil servant Sir Michael Bichard, broadcast journalist Tony Hall, and professor and surgeon Ajay Kakkar.
The appointments were made by the Appointments Commission, a body set up by the prime minister to make recommendations for non-party-political peerages.
It aims to find "people of distinction who will bring authority and expertise to the House of Lords".
So far it has nominated 55 non-party-political peerages to the prime minister, drawn from well over 4,000 nominations.
Dame, soon to be Baroness, Grey-Thompson has won 11 gold medals in wheelchair events at the Paralympics, seven gold medals from World Championships and has set 30 world records in the course of her career.
She is currently a non-executive director of the board of UK Athletics and a vice-chair of the athletes committee of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG).
Sir Michael Bichard is the chair of the design council and director of the institute for government.
He was permanent secretary to the Department for Education, 1990-95, and the Department for Education and Employment, 1995-2001.
Tony Hall was director and then chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs from 1989-2001 before being appointed chief executive of the Royal Opera House in 2001.
He helped establish the BBC News website and new radio stations and television channels including Radio 5 Live and BBC Parliament.
Professor Ajay Kakkar is Professor of Surgical Sciences at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London.
All four will sit as non-party political cross bench peers in the House of Lords.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd