Ten medals and seven newly-crowned champions make Tokyo 2020 an Olympic Games to remember for Bath-based sportspeople
The University of Bath is celebrating an outstanding Olympic Games for sportspeople who train and studied here, eight of whom are returning from Tokyo 2020 as newly-crowned Olympic Champions.
Mechanical Engineering student Tom Dean’s magnificent swim in an unforgettable men’s 200m freestyle final sparked a gold rush for members of the British Swimming National Centre Bath elite training squad based at the University.
Dean, supported by a Bill Whiteley Sporting Scholarship, also won gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay along with James Guy, Matt Richards and Sports Performance graduate Calum Jarvis.
Guy added another gold in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, with Sport & Exercise Science graduate Anna Hopkin anchoring the British quartet to victory in a world record time, and bagged his third medal with silver in the men’s medley relay. Freya Anderson also brought home mixed medley relay gold after her excellent swim in the heats.
It was then the turn of University of Bath graduates Kate French (Sports Performance) and Joe Choong (Mathematics) to cap an incredible 17 days of competition by winning modern pentathlon gold in the space of 24 hours, both setting Olympic records in the process.
French and Choong both train at the Pentathlon GB National Performance Centre, which has been based at the Team Bath Sports Training Village since 1998 and has now produced three Olympic Champions and seven medallists in total since Sydney 2000.
In total there were ten medals won by University-based sportspeople in Tokyo where 20 athletes who train at the STV represented their countries on the biggest sporting stage of all, along with a further eight graduates and a host of sporting alumna including former Team Bath Tennis pro Marcus Daniell who won a historic men’s doubles bronze for New Zealand.
Stephen Baddeley, Director of Sport for the University of Bath, said: “We couldn’t be happier for all the athletes and we are really proud of our association with these great sportspeople. We’ve been particularly delighted over the past difficult 15 months to be able to provide them with access to training day in, day out through the elite sport ‘return to training’ protocol.
“We’re fortunate, as well as being open to the public and students, to be designated an elite training centre by UK Sport and we have excellent partnerships with the national governing bodies based here. This is a high-performance sporting environment and there’s no doubt that success breeds success.
“We are excited to look forward to Bath-based athletes competing at the Paralympic Games later this month, as well as the Beijing Winter Games and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.”
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games roll of honour
Tom Dean (swimming) – 2 gold (200m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay).
James Guy (swimming) – 2 gold (4x200m freestyle relay, mixed 4x100m medley relay), 1 silver (men’s 4x100m medley relay).
Freya Anderson (swimming) – 1 gold (mixed 4x100m medley relay).
Joe Choong (modern pentathlon) – 1 gold.
Kate French (modern pentathlon) – 1 gold.
Anna Hopkin (swimming, alumni) – 1 gold (mixed 4x100m medley relay).
Calum Jarvis (swimming) – 1 gold (4x200m freestyle relay).
Matt Richards (swimming) – 1 gold (4x200m freestyle relay).
