StudentMediaWire

The higher education sector was once again proving how valuable university sport is to the development and support of elite athletes, with 57% of the team returning from Beijing being made up of university students and graduates.

The figure, collated by the new voice for university sport in the UK – British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) – compares favourably with the number of athletes at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, where students and graduates took home 15 of the 30 medals, including 3 golds.

The returning Team GB included:

Simeon Williamson, second-year Sports Science student, Middlesex University
Williamson was the first male to be chosen by the BOA to run the 100m for Team GB. His time at the GB trails clocked him as the fifth fastest British man in the 100m. At the 2007 World University Games in Bangkok, Williamson was crowned champion in the 100m and he also won the BUCS title for the 60m in the same year. He recently competed for BUCS with fellow sprinter Craig Pickering (University of Bath) in the 4x100m relay at the Loughborough International in May 2008.

Montell Douglas, Sports Studies graduate (2008), Brunel University
Douglas is competing in the Women’s 4x100m and 100m athletics events. During her studies she won 10 BUCS (formerly BUSA) Indoor & Outdoor Athletics titles. Last week (17.07.08) in Loughborough, Douglas smashed Kathy Cook’s 27-year 100m record giving her a late, but guaranteed entry to run the 100m in Beijing.

Liam Tancock, second-year Sports Science student, University of Loughborough
This will be Tancock’s first Olympic Games, but he already has a number of World and Championship wins under his belt, including gold in the 50m Backstroke at the 2005 World University Games, where he broke the Games’ record. He will be competing in the 100m Backstroke and 200m Individual Medley.

Alastair Brownlee, second-year Sport Studies student, University of Leeds
Brownlee recently returned from the World U23 Triathlon Championships with a first place and was the top British athlete (finishing 3rd) in the World Cup races in Madrid. Brownlee is one of five triathletes competing this year; four of which have come through the higher education sector.

Chloe Rogers, Sports Management with Golf Studies graduate (2007), Buckinghamshire New University
Rogers will be one of 32 Hockey players going to Beijing of which 22 are students or graduates. As well as being a member of the Women’s Hockey Team, Rogers is also an accomplished golfer. In 2007 she won the women’s Individual Championship title at the 2007 British Universities Golf Strokeplay Championships, held at Hexham, Northumberland.

Kirsty Balfour, Sport & Exercise Science graduate, Heriot-Watt University
Beijing 2008 will be Balfour’s second Olympic Games where she will compete in the 100m and 200m Breaststroke. Like her swimming colleague Tancock, Balfour has a university swimming pedigree representing GB in the World University Games in Daegu in 2003 and winning bronze, silver and gold medals at the BUCS (formerly BUSA) 2003 Short Course Championships.

Karen Rothery, Chief Executive at British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) said: “As the new, national voice for university sport we’re excited that students and graduates make up over half of the team. This is a great start for university sport and shows the potential we have in the sector to make a real difference to increasing participation and improving performance across all Olympic sports.

“What this figure doesn’t show is the number of Beijing athletes who train alongside students at university due to the quality of facilities and coaching on offer. It’s highly likely that the vast majority of athletes in Beijing will have benefited from higher education support at some point in their sporting careers.

“Our sights are now set on London 2012; with our members we’ll be looking at how we can help more athletes combine their sporting careers with their academic aspirations to achieve success on and off the field.”

BUCS is currently looking for a title sponsor for its four-day, multi-sport Championship event on 11 – 15 March 2009 in Sheffield. Over 5,000 athletes, including our Olympic hopefuls, will be fighting it out in over 20 events including Olympic sports such as Judo, Swimming, Hockey, Boxing, Athletics, Badminton and Fencing.

Editor’s notes
178 of the 313 athletes in Team GB are university students or graduates; compared with 156 students/graduates who went to Athens in 2004.

54% of students and graduates in Team GB are female competitors (97 female/81 male competitors)

Students and graduates will be competing in 16 of the 20 events entered by Team GB
All 19 of the women’s rowing team competing in Beijing have come through the higher education sector, with degrees read at universities including the University of Cambridge, Oxford Brookes University, Edinburgh University and the University of Reading.

Individual sport information is available by contacting Jenni Anderson on 020 7633 5088.

For further information please contact:

Jenni Anderson, Head of Communications at British Universities & Colleges Sport
Tel: 020 7633 5088.
Email: jenni.anderson@bucs.org.uk