Sochi 2014

Athletes based at the University of Bath have had impressive successes at major international sporting events – and none more so than at the Olympic Winter Games.

Some of the country’s finest winter sport athletes have trained at the University, under the direction and guidance of their national governing bodies, and have proudly returned home with Olympic medals.

The University of Bath is proud to be the host for the national governing body for Skeleton and Bobsleigh – the BBSA – whose athletes train on site and regularly use the Lottery and University-funded push-start track.

Both governing bodies also have their operational offices in the £30million Sports Training Village.

Continued success

At the sliding centre, British Skeleton’s Lizzy Yarnold – who trained here – brought home a gold medal in spectacular fashion, continuing Team GB’s recent tradition of success in this event.

She followed in the footsteps of University of Bath graduates Amy Williams and Shelley Rudman who won Olympic gold in Vancouver in 2010 and silver at Torino 2006 respectively.

University of Bath PhD student Dom Parsons made his Olympic
début in the men’s competition, finishing a very respectable tenth.

The British Bobsleigh men’s team came fifth but John Jackson, Stu Benson, Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon were subsequently upgraded to the bronze-medal position in 2019 after the Russian teams that finished first and fourth were disqualified for doping offences.

On the slopes, ParalympicsGB alpine skier and University
of Bath graduate Kelly Gallagher became the first British Paralympic gold
medallist.

Sochi images courtesy: Sochi 2014 Press Office

Latest news

Find out how the Bath-based athletes got on in Sochi with our news and features archive.