After an incredible 189-medal haul for Great Britain at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the search has officially begun to find the next generation of UK sporting talent. UK Sport, has launched Find Your Greatness, a campaign aiming to identify future Team GB or ParalympicsGB stars from across the nation. Targeted at active and sporty 16-24-year-old UK nationals, including those with physical, visual or intellectual impairments, applications are now open until Monday 14th October...
Paris 2024 Olympians and Paralympians who train, study or studied at the University of Bath were guests of honour when Bath Rugby beat Northampton Saints 38-16 in the opening match of the 2024-25 Gallagher Premiership. Becky Wilde, who won rowing bronze on her Olympic debut, and para-badminton silver-medallist Dan Bethell, a lifelong Bath Rugby fan, took part in a half-time Q&A at The Rec along with modern pentathlete Charlie Brown, who studies Sports Management and...
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...
Bath para-badminton star Dan Bethell won the second silver medal of his Paralympic Games career as he was narrowly edged out in a dramatic men’s SL3 singles final. An absorbing encounter saw Bethell recover from losing the opening game, then rally from 19-16 down in the decisive third game before saving a match point to serve for the gold medal at 21-20. However, opponent Kumar Nitesh of India managed to take the next three points...
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...
University of Bath-associated athletes finished with two gold medals, three silver, one bronze and a host of historic achievements from the Olympic Games after two weeks of outstanding competition in Paris. Four of the medals were won by current or former Bath sporting scholars, with (pictured top, from left) swimmer Tom Dean, artistic swimmer Kate Shortman, judoka Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz and rower Becky Wilde all having been supported by the University as they pursued their dual...
