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Oxford alumni enjoy Olympic success

Three University of Oxford alumni have so far taken gold in the London Olympics, meaning that the Oxonian gold tally matches that of the whole nation of South Africa, and comfortably surpasses that of Cambridge alumni at the time of writing.

It is no great surprise that Oxford’s Olympic success has historically been in rowing. Sir Matt Pinsent, formerly a geography undergraduate at St Catherine’s is arguably Oxford’s greatest ever Olympian, having rowed his way to four consecutive gold medals. True to form, one-time Blues boat mates Andy Triggs-Hogg and Pete Reed, who were both members of Oxford’s victorious boat race team in 2005, took gold in the men’s coxless four in the early stages of Team GB’s ‘Super’ Saturday.

Triggs-Hodge and Reed both came to Oxford as graduate students, the former in 2004 to study, again at St Catherine’s, for an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management. The latter spent two years at traditional rowing powerhouse Oriel, studying for an MSc in Mechanical Engineering. 

Another Oxford rower to win a medal this year is Constantine Louloudis, stroke of the men’s eight which won a bronze last week. Louloudis, who was a member of Oxford’s winning boat race crew as a fresher, is currently reading Classics at Trinity College but put his degree on hold to pursue his Olympic ambitions.

Perhaps the most interesting of this year’s gold medallists is relatively unheralded American swimmer Davis Tarwater. Tarwater retired from professional swimming in 2009 to concentrate on academia, having never been able to break into a USA Olympic squad.

But in an interview with the USA swimming website, Tarwater credited his subsequent year at Oxford studying for an MSc in Latin American Studies as being instrumental in the remarkable turnaround his career has undergone since then: “It was the best year of my life, and I think I got everything out of it that I possibly could have. I did not intend to continue competing athletically upon the completion of my Masters’ Degree in 2010.

‘However, after seeing the calibre of student attending Oxford, I realized that athletics was a good way to affect and inspire others, and for me to further develop personally. My friends in college were very supportive in encouraging my return to sports.”

Encouraged not just by college friends, but also by his relationship with God, the deeply religious swimmer made his return in 2010, with just 18 months to recover form and fitness before the Olympic trials. He scraped through these by virtue of Michael Phelps dropping out of his 200m freestyle relay berth, and was rewarded as the US team took gold in the event last week.

Finally, British discus record-holder Lawrence Okoye, currently 19 years old, will this year go up to St Peter’s College to read Law, having deferred his place year in order to focus on the Olympics. Okoye confirmed his potential by securing a place in the discus final with his last throw in qualification on Monday, but a best throw of 61.03 in the finals on Tuesday evening left him out of medal contention.  

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