Olympian on campus

With 500 days to go till the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic and Paralympic Games the audience were interested to hear about Heather’s experiences as an Olympic athlete and her hopes for the future.

Currently, Heather trains at the University of Bath and at home in Devon. Her discipline, Modern Pentathlon, involves five sports so her training has to include time for each of these as well as general strength and conditioning work. A change in the programme for London 2012 is that the shooting will be done by lasers and the athletes have had to learn how to use these.
When asked about the legacy of London 2012, Heather was very positive and commented: “There is lots of great work being carried out in schools and that will be a very important legacy. I also believe that a home Games will mean that Team GB will achieve even more medals.”

Thanking her for her visit, Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Neil Armstrong said: “It has been a great pleasure to welcome local Devon girl Heather here to the University. I have loved sport all my life and tonight I learnt about how athletes are selected for TeamGB. I had not appreciated what short notice you are given of your selection, even for someone like Heather who has already had Olympic success.”

After her talk, Heather stayed to chat informally to students and to let them take photos of themselves holding her Olympic medal. She also gave an interview for the student radio on campus.

The photographs of the evening were taken by University of Plymouth photography student David Hedges.

The event was made possible through the support of the University’s Annual Fund and it was organised by RELAYS, (Regional Educational Legacy in Arts and Youth Sport).