Who is UoB's greatest sportsperson?

A look at three sporting heroes who went to University at Bristol

Louis Edward Digital Editor

Every Wednesday, hundreds of students put their studies on hold to take part in the variety of sports that the University has to offer.

While most of us are simply there to try our best and take advantage of the social side of sport, there are some with aspirations of using their time at University as a launchpad for a sporting career.

For these individuals, they need look no further than UoB's own alumni for inspiration. With Olympic gold medals and World Cups to their names, we look at three candidates for the greatest sportsperson to have made it to the Wills Memorial Great Hall.

Laura Tomlinson MBE

First on our list is one of the he - roes on that legendary list of 2012 Olympic gold medal winners for Team GB. Competing under her maiden name Laura Bechtolsheimer, she, along with Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, won the first team dressage gold for Great Britain and picked up an individual bronze medal for good measure. When applying for Wills Hall back in 2004, Tomlinson laid her achievements out on her form: ‘my main hobby is riding – I have won two silver medals at European championships and my efforts continue!’ She was certainly achieving at an early age, winning her first European Championship medal at only 14, then becoming the youngest British dressage champion aged 20. It was with the Danish-bred Mistral Højris, nicknamed ‘Alf’, that Tomlinson found her biggest successes.

Just a year after graduating with a BSc in Philosophy and Politics, she was competing at the 2008 Olympic Games. Then followed three silver medals at the 2010 World Championships, a gold at the 2011 European

Championships, and a crowning gold and bronze at the 2012 Olympics in front of a home crowd – all with Alf.

Josh Lewsey is a Rugby World Cup winner and British and Irish Lion

Iain Percy OBE

Competing at four Olympics is a testament to sporting excellence but winning two gold medals at different games is undoubtedly a great feat. Iain Percy won gold sailing in a solo dinghy at Sydney 2000, and then again eight years later in Beijing with partner Andrew Simpson. With Simpson, he won European Championship and World Championship golds in 2009 and 2010, but the pair got their home sendoff, winning silver at London 2012. Arriving in Bristol with Sport England funding as part of the World Class Performance programme, it was said that, at his honorary degree ceremony, ‘most of his grant was probably spent on weekends in the White Bear’. Percy graduated with honours in Economics in 1998 while still committing to his Olympic sailing dreams. Straight out of graduation, he was able to go fully professional and won the European