Culture, Media and Sport Secretary visits Olympic and Paralympic Champions at University of Bath ahead of Paris 2024 milestone
Lucy Frazer MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, met several Olympic and Paralympic Champions at their University of Bath training base on Thursday where they are preparing for Paris 2024, now just six months away.
She was accompanied on the tour of the Team Bath Sports Training Village (STV) by Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair of UK Sport, and spoke to a number of athletes and coaches including double Tokyo 2020 swimming gold-medallist Tom Dean, reigning modern pentathlon Olympic champions Joe Choong and Kate French, and Paralympic wheelchair fencing champion Piers Gilliver.
All are working hard towards representing their country in Paris this summer, with the visit coinciding with the six-month countdown to the Olympic Games which begins on Friday 26th July. The Paralympic Games then get under way on Wednesday 28th August.
The Secretary of State also met Professor Ian White, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bath, and viewed the STV’s world-class training facilities including the Olympic-standard 50m swimming pool, Pentathlon Hall and the Wheelchair Fencing National Training Centre which opened 13 months ago to help the British squad build on their Tokyo medal success.
The official countdown is on…6 months to go until @Paris2024 !
Excitement is already building & yesterday I was at @UniofBath sports training village with @uk_sport to meet GB Paris-bound athletes & coaches to see how their training is going & tour the incredible facilities. pic.twitter.com/Vy9AJUq2HQ
— Lucy Frazer (@lucyfrazermp) January 26, 2024
The University of Bath is one of the first of just eight institutions nationwide to be awarded the status of UK Sport-accredited Elite Training Centre, a title that celebrates its role in helping Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes achieve their full performance potential.
University-based athletes have brought home 59 medals from the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games since Atlanta 1996, 16 of which are gold including 11 from the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021.
Follow Bath-based athletes on their journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games at teambath.com/Paris-2024.
Pictured top: Lucy Frazer MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with UK Sport’s Dame Katherine Grainger and Duncan Rolley at the entrance to the Team Bath Sports Training Village.
