City of Culture Bid

Team Durham

Olympic Success for Durham Stars in Tokyo

Eli Schenkel

Part of Canada’s Fencing Team A record-breaking eight Durham University students, past and present, have been welcomed home after proudly representing their countries at the recent Tokyo Olympics.

Seven sporting stars represented Team GB in Hockey and Rowing, and one recent graduate represented Canada in Fencing, with two coming home with medals. Current second year Sport and Exercise Science student Fiona Crackles, 21, was part of the Team GB women’s hockey squad who won a bronze medal after their victory over India.

Fiona, who only joined the Team GB squad in January, has worked tirelessly to juggle her academic and sporting commitments. She is Durham’s first ever student to win an Olympic medal while still undertaking her degree. Joining Fiona on the Olympic podium was alumnus Angus Groom (Natural Sciences, Hatfield College, 2010-13). Angus, 29, was selected as a member of the Team GB rowing team and won a silver medal as part of the men’s quadruple scull crew. This was the country’s first medal in this discipline. Alongside Angus in the rowing team was Matt Rossiter, 31 (Biology, St Cuthbert’s Society, 2009-12) who narrowly missed out on a medal position in the men’s coxless four final. Matt and Angus were joined by former Durham students James Harris and Dan Moore who formed part of the GB rowing coaching team. Jack Waller, 24 (History, College of St Hild & St Bede) and Ollie Payne, 22 (Sport Health & Exercise, Josephine Butler College, 2017-20) were part of Team GB’s men’s hockey squad. The team battled through the group stages but were defeated by a tough Indian team in the quarter-finals. Finally, former MSc Management student Eli Schenkel (Internet Systems & E-Business, Ustinov College, 2017-19) made his Olympic debut and represented Team Canada in the individual and team foil fencing event. The Paralympic Games followed and we were thrilled to watch alumna Gemma Collis McCann (Law, St Cuthbert’s Society, 2011-14) in the Team GB Fencing team for her third Games. Gemma, who started her fencing journey while studying at Durham, took part in both the épée and sabre. Director of Experience Durham, Quentin Sloper said: “It was wonderful to see our past and present students representing their countries at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. We are immensely proud of each and every one of them and we would like to congratulate them all on their amazing achievements - they are truly an inspiration. “We are delighted to have played a part in their Olympic journey and, following the construction of our new £32m Sports and Wellbeing Park we are confident that, coupled with our outstanding coaching and support team, we are very well placed to continue to provide a platform for elite athletes to excel athletically while studying a world class degree.” Durham University has a rich history of high-performance sport success. Since 2013, Durham has been Britain’s Number 1 Team Sport University, supporting over 50 capped international athletes and 20 high performance club programmes per year