Team Bath Futures sprint coach Grace Crompton hoping to set golden pace with Team GB rugby 7s at Paris Olympic Games
When it comes to Olympians inspiring the next generation, Team GB rugby 7s player Grace Crompton is very much walking the walking – or sprinting the sprint in her case.
Crompton, who studied Sports Management and Coaching at the University of Bath, is putting the knowledge she gained from her degree to good use by working with young sportspeople on the Team Bath Futures talent development programme.
Renowned for her lightning pace on the rugby pitch for Great Britain in 7s and Bristol Bears in 15s, Crompton has been running weekly speed sessions on the indoor athletics track at the Team Bath Sports Training Village to help the emerging stars in School Years 7-13 take their sporting potential to the next level.
“I have a passion for coaching and working with Futures has been so much fun, an invaluable experience,” said Crompton, who is making her Olympic debut at Paris 2024. “I always really appreciated it as a young athlete when older sports people would come in and not just share their experience but teach a technique and then demonstrate how it could be applied to other sports.
“I like to make the sessions as contextual as I can when coaching. Even something like putting a ball in changes the dynamic of things. It has been really good for me as an athlete as it checks my knowledge and makes sure I am on track, and I hope the kids have enjoyed it as well.”
Paris is the latest – and biggest – stop on a global 7s circuit that has seen Crompton represent her country in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany so far this year. While not travelling the world she trains full-time at the University’s Sports Training Village (STV), one of only eight UK Sport-accredited Elite Training Centres in the country.
“The University has always given me massive support,” said Crompton, who graduated last summer. “I’m able to use all the facilities I need – the gym, ice bath, indoor and outdoor sprint tracks.
“If someone had told me when I started at the University in 2019 that I would one day be going to the Olympics I would not have believed them but it just shows that no dream is ever too big.
“I was really into my sprinting and athletics when I was younger but then I found rugby when I was about 16. The 7s was contested at an Olympics for the first time at Rio 2016 and it put the game on the map for me.”
A member of that trailblazing squad was Amy Wilson Hardy, who studied Integrated Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at the University and will be a team-mate of Crompton’s when GB compete in the iconic Stade de France from 28th to 30th July.
“It’s my first Olympic Games and I’m looking forward to every little bit of the experience, soaking up as much as possible,” said Crompton. “I went to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with Team England so I’ve had a taste of a mega event, so now I want to enjoy the moment as I’ve been told it goes by in a flash.
“It’s been a two-year plan and we want to medal at the Olympics. The girls before us at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 did an amazing job but finished in that unlucky fourth position, which is probably the hardest place to be. We want to get on the podium for them and for us. Getting a medal is our goal and our dream, and we’ll do everything we can to achieve that.”
Find out more about the Team Bath Futures talent development programme by visiting teambath.com/futures.
