University of Bath-based sportspeople awarded New Year Honours after winning gold at Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games
A host of Olympic and Paralympic champions who train at the University of Bath have been awarded MBEs in the 2022 New Year Honours.
Swimmers Freya Anderson, Tom Dean, James Guy, Calum Jarvis and Matt Richards, pentathletes Joe Choong and Kate French, and wheelchair fencer Piers Gilliver are among the British sportspeople recognised for their outstanding gold-medal achievements at Tokyo 2020 last summer.
Dean, supported by a Bill Whiteley Sporting Scholarship, produced an incredible performance to be crowned as 200m freestyle champion before teaming up with British Swimming National Centre Bath team-mates Guy and Richards to win 4x200m freestyle relay gold the following day, with Sports Performance graduate Jarvis also in the successful squad.
Guy secured a second gold with victory in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, along with training partner Anderson and University of Bath Sport & Exercise Science alumna Anna Hopkin who have also been awarded MBEs.
Pentathlon GB’s Choong and French, who both train and studied at the University of Bath, made history in magnificent style in Tokyo as Britain became the first country to win both the men’s and women’s modern pentathlon titles at the same Olympic Games. Jabeena Maslin, Pentathlon GB’s long-serving riding coach, also receives a MBE.
The Paralympic Games saw wheelchair fencers who train on the EIS World-Class Programme at the Team Bath Sports Training Village bring home nine medals between them, including Category A epee gold for Gilliver – an upgrade on the silver he won at Rio 2016.
Congratulations to all the New Year Honours recipients from all of us at Team Bath!
