Five Paris 2024 medallists were among the Olympians and Paralympians whose achievements were celebrated at a special homecoming reception at the University of Bath. The athletes all train, study or studied at the University, one of the country’s leading institutions for high-performance sport, and were joined at the gathering by staff, coaches and civic representatives from Bath and Somerset. Double Paralympic Champion Dimitri Coutya (wheelchair fencing) and Olympic gold-medallist Kieran Bird (swimming) were in attendance...
A new and improved Student Performance Sport Breakthrough Programme will provide more than 160 University of Bath student-athletes across 25 different sports with bespoke support designed to help them maximise their academic and sporting potential. Supported by Team Bath partners Rengen, the programme offers best-practice personal development and performance support to the students - all identified as having long-term athletic potential – as they seek to make the step up from pre-elite level to sustained...
The Government’s commitment to a £344million investment into Olympic and Paralympic sports over the next four-year cycle, announced in this week's Budget, has been welcomed by UK Sport and its partners, including the University of Bath. It is the equivalent of an extra £9 million a year on Paris-cycle funding levels and Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport (pictured), said: “We are confident that the amount announced, alongside the excellent support provided by The National...
British wheelchair fencers won a total of six medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, continuing the country’s record as one of the sport’s top competitors. Now, a simple and low-cost wooden frame called the ‘SwordSeat™’, which can be built using minimal tools and materials, aims to make wheelchair fencing accessible to many more clubs and participants. Designed by engineers at the University of Bath in collaboration with British Fencing, the SwordSeat is a pair...
Wheelchair fencers Dimitri Coutya, Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson are returning from Paris to their Bath training base with 10 Paralympic medals between them following a week to remember in the Grand Palais. The trio concluded the Games by winning bronze in the men’s team epee competition on Saturday, beating Poland 45-28 in the medal decider to back up the silver medal they had won in Thursday’s team foil event. That meant Coutya, Gilliver and...
Dimitri Coutya reigned supreme once again in the Grand Palais tonight as the British wheelchair fencer claimed his second Paralympic gold of the week. Coutya backed up Wednesday’s foil success by beating Thailand’s Visit Kingmanaw 15-10 in the Category B epee final. Team-mate Piers Gilliver also reached his third successive Category A epee final but, having won gold in Tokyo, had to settle for silver on this occasion after a 15-12 defeat to China’s Gang...
The medal rush continued for Britain’s wheelchair fencers in the Grand Palais on Thursday as Dimitri Coutya, Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson won men’s team foil silver. It was a repeat of the trio’s achievement in Tokyo, with China – featuring three individual foil medallists – once again proving just too strong in the final The Bath-based Brits put up a fantastic fight, though, and led 20-15 after the first four rounds. China turned things...
Dimitri Coutya secured the only wheelchair fencing title missing from his stellar CV as he magnificently won Category B foil Paralympic gold in Paris on Wednesday. The multiple World and European Champion, who won one silver and three bronze medals in Tokyo three years ago, was determined to end his wait for the biggest prize of all and produced three outstanding performances to fulfil his ambition. Bath-based Coutya, as top seed, was given a bye...
Wheelchair fencer Piers Gilliver won the fifth medal of his glittering Paralympics career to date when he secured Category A sabre silver in the stunning surroundings of the Grand Palais on Tuesday. It was a first Paralympic medal with the weapon for Gilliver - whose previous medals in Rio and Tokyo had come in the epee individual, and epee and foil team events - and was the perfect start to his campaign for four podium...
Paralympians who train at the University of Bath are heading to Paris determined to write their own chapters in this summer’s sporting success story. Seven athletes from four sports – Dan Bethell (para-badminton), Suzanna Hext (para-swimming), Michael Taylor (para-triathlon), and Gemma Collis, Dimitri Coutya, Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson (wheelchair fencing) – have been selected to represent Britain when the Games take place from Wednesday 28th August to Sunday 8th September. Defending Category A epee...
