Category: Inspirations – Sports

The new two times European Short Course Swimming Champion and British record holder

As the European Swimming Short Course Championships in Glasgow draws to an end, we can reflect on some of the amazing performances from Team GB.  The British team, after winning three gold, four silver and four bronze medals, finished fifth overall in the medal table. The biggest surprise of the week – two of the three British gold medals were won by 18 years old Freya Anderson.

With her victory in the 100m Freestyle event on Friday 6th December, Anderson claimed her first ever senior international title. On the following day, she continued to create shock waves in the pool by touching the wall first after an astonishing sprint finish in the 200m Freestyle final. Her time of 1:52.77 set a new British Record and earned Freya her second senior World Championship gold medal. Both of her races are linked below.

Freya Anderson pulled off a stunning performance to beat a line-up of fierce competition, including the legendary Federica Pellegrini, who is the 2008 200m Freestyle Olympic Champion, seven times World and fourteen times European Champion, and still the current long course world record holder in the 200m Freestyle.

Anderson’s technique and tactics were brilliant in both of these events. Her smooth, long strokes allowed her to power through her races, leaving her with enough energy for a spectacularly executed sprint finish.

In 2018, Freya Anderson was shortlisted for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award. Although she didn’t win, her talent was already being recognised.
With the Olympics around the corner, 2020 will definitely be an exciting year for women in British Swimming.

100m freestyle: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/50693902

200m freestyle: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/swimming/50700563

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/45908898

written by Izabella – swimming rep

Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave CBE DL (born 23 March 1962) is a retired British rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships golds. He is the most successful male rower in Olympic history and is regarded as one of Britain’s greatest-ever Olympians.

However, Sir Steve Redgrave was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 35, while he was training for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Having won gold at the previous four games, large amounts of pressure had been placed on him and didn’t think he’d be able to compete with a potentially debilitating illness.

His consultant, however, Dr Ian Gallen, said there was no reason why he shouldn’t be able to achieve his dream of rowing at the Sydney games. Despite this, the pair had to navigate a host of challenges – for example, Redgrave had to get used to injecting insulin and regularly changing aspects of his diet to keep up with his gruelling training regime.

Going on to winning his 5th gold medal, Redgrave is an extremely inspirational person not only in British rowing but sport in general. His persistent to train at such a high level and ability to adapt to a major obstacle in his life make him such a good example of what a good sportsperson should be like, and the reason why many look up to him today.

written by Amy – rowing rep

Nicola Adams retired from boxing just last week and has been a huge inspiration to many women in sport for example, Demi Stokes who is the England left back in football.

She was one of the first women to go pro in boxing, and the first female boxer to win an Olympic title. In a very much male dominated sport, Adams has shown that there are no boundaries to what women can achieve and has greatly helped the profile of women in the sporting world. She has strived to make women’s participation in sport an encouraging environment where we support each other and strive to achieve whatever goals we set out to.

written by Robin – gymnastics rep

Last September commenced the start of the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Tokyo, Japan, where the top twenty countries battled it out for a claim of the title. The tournament is rugby’s centrepiece event, becoming the big stage that rugby players from all over the world dream of reaching.

This was the first year where the tournament would be hosted in an Asian country and the Japanese succeeded in proving their place amongst rugby’s top nations. Dominating over top performing countries, such as Ireland and Scotland, the Japanese team rightfully earnt their place in the quarter-finals, which was seen as a significant achievement for the host nation. A lot of admiration can be taken from the fighting spirit of Japan, from entering the tournament as historically not the strongest team but fuelled from the encouragement of its home crowd spirit and pride for its nation- Japan preserved through some challenging matches in the group stage.

Despite not making the semi-finals, the Japanese performance should be seen as the silver lining of the tournament. Immense amount of pride and honour should be taken away by the Japanese players, as their performance has inspired a nation to take a love to the sport and hopefully promise a successful new generation of boys and girls for the future of rugby for Japan.

written by Lucy – hockey rep

The meaning and significance of sport can be lost in our manic day-to-day lives. At school, we are fortunate to be offered a plethora of opportunities to participate in a large variety of sports. Wherever we turn, there are many role models to whom we can look up to; Olympians, sport stars, even some of our friends. Sometimes, even the daily news reports may seem to be saturated with sporting success. This makes it easy to forget that today many women are still actively prevented from participating in, or spectating, certain sporting events.

After the Islamic revolution, political and legislative changes were introduced in Iran. For example, since 1981, women have been prohibited to attend men’s football matches. Since then, many women have protested, as well as tried to enter football stadiums dressed as men, which generally resulted in their arrests and subsequent prison sentences.

Sahar Khodayari was a young Iranian football fan, a graduate with degrees in English and Computer Science, who paid a very high price for her love of sport. Nicknamed the ‘Blue Girl’, blue being the colour of the football team she supported, on the 2nd September 2019, set herself alight, in protest against the current rules of Iran. She died a week later in hospital.

Sahar Khodayari was arrested six months earlier in March, while attempting to enter a Football Stadium to watch a football match of the Asian Champions League. She was dressed as a man, but got caught by a security guard and arrested for “violating the prohibition”.  For six months she awaited her trial, but on the day of 2^nd September, the judge was not available to appear at court, therefore no verdict was passed. However, Sahar heard from other sources that she should expect to receive a six to twelve months prison sentence. She then took the decision to self-immolate. After leaving the court house, she poured petrol on herself and set herself on fire.   

These events have sparked a series of debates and pressure has been placed on Iran to lift the controversial ban. Many Iranians took part in online campaigns, urging influential sporting organisations to ban Iran from participating in international competitions. Eventually, on the 10^th of October 2019, Iranian women were permitted to attend the World Cup qualifier match against Cambodia. The match took place at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran with a turnout of 3,500 women.

Ostensibly, this seems like a success; the media reported the event with headlines such as ‘Women attend first match in decades’ and ‘Thousands of Iranian women watch football match for first time’. However, women who attended the match were still segregated from men within the stadium, sitting in a separate area on allocated seats. Neverthless, it is also worth mentioning, that, it had only been just over a year ago, that in June 2018 similar headlines appeared stating ‘World Cup 2018: Women finally allowed in Iranian football stadium’. On that occasion, women were permitted to be present in the Azadi Stadium while the football match, physically taking place in Russia, was shown live on big screens in the stadium. However, the privilege of being able to spectate the sport ceased as soon as the World Cup came to an end. When FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) applies pressure on Iran, they appear to comply and permit some women to watch a high profile football match live in a stadium. These images circulate on the internet, then journalists report on the momentous changes and what these mean for the women of Iran. Unfortunately, however, the rules revert back as soon as media attention drifts away and focuses on other news elsewhere in the world.

Although this doesn’t detract from the success of 3,500 women being allowed to watch the World Cup qualifying game on the 10th October, it is important to ensure that Sahar Khodayari is not forgotten, because her fight has not been won yet.

Meanwhile, instead of viewing sport as an inconvenience, trying to avoid participation or flicking over sport news and sports channels, we should perhaps pause and remember those who lost their lives due to their love of sport.  We don’t all have to love it, but we should all appreciate that we have the choice and we are encouraged to embrace it. Knowing that women are still punished for and prevented from participating in sport, makes me feel sad and humbled.

written by Izabella – swimming rep

Sources:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-49646879

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-50002658

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/10/thousands-of-iranian-women-watch-football-match-for-first-time

https://time.com/5683512/fifa-women-iran-football/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-44561909

This weekend Kipchoge ran a marathon in less than two hours, making history with a time of 1:59:40! It is the fastest any human has ever covered the 26.2 miles marathon.

What I find inspirational about Kipchoge is that he often compares his goals and what seems “impossible” similar to reaching the moon, and other various stars in our galaxy. I find this a really inspirational thought to consider, we once thought landing on the moon was impossible… until it was done. He set his goals right up there with the stars and I think we should do the same, nothing is impossible unless you think it is.

Also he recognises and goes on to thank his team around him, from the pacemakers, to the experts on aerodynamics, cyclists delivering him drink, his unreleased Nike shoes, to the driver of the car projecting lasers to show him the pace – they all played a part in getting him to his dream – the “moon”. Reading the article on Saturday reminded me of something someone once told me, that everyone has a team behind them, and yes the parts of the team get swapped out, but that individual wouldn’t be where they were without their team. I think it’s really important to be able to take a minute and recognise this because in our busy lives, always chasing success it is easy to forget how you got to where you are.

Good luck this week with your matches, it’s the last push until a well-deserved rest in half-term!

Written by: Emily – Sports + Netball Captain

In light of the Rugby world cup that is taking place in Japan at the moment I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on the women’s side of the game and see how it has developed due to the strength and perseverance of a brave group of young women

Liberty Fields was set up by a group of women that defied social convention in the 1980s in Japan. They formed a group of strong, resilient and brave women that ultimately made it to the women’s world cup, and not only that they set up something much greater. A new level of women’s sport in Japan. Women’s sport in Japan in the 1980s was faced with hostility and societal discrimination, but despite this they formed a team, a bond and unbreakable spirit. Their aim was yes to be able to play rugby, but ultimately they thought “we lose if women can’t play rugby”. When going to the world cup they were filled with hope and pride as they saw first-hand all these women from all over the globe sharing the same passion and same drive as them. Liberty Fields has demonstrated to us that with determination, perseverance and hope anything is possible no matter how impossible it may seem at the time.

Here’s the link – give it a read and watch the short 5 minute clip for a massive hit of inspiration for the week ahead: https://lbbonline.com/news/guinness-shines-a-light-on-japans-female-rugby-pioneers-in-inspirational-short/

written by: Emily – Netball Captain

If you follow Strictly Come Dancing you might have heard of James Cracknell as being voted out in the first week of the competition – but if you row or keep up with rowing you would know what an inspiration he is! At the age of 47 he has been in the sport for some time, achieving 8 gold medals representing Britain – 6 at world championships and 2 Olympic gold medals. He started rowing at Kingston Grammar School, not too far from Wimbledon, and won the junior championships at the age of 18. His countless medals however are not what make him so inspirational.

On 20 July 2010, Cracknell suffered a hit from behind by a petrol tanker whilst cycling during an attempt to cycle, row, run and swim from Los Angeles to New York within 18 days. The brain injury altered his life completely, leaving him with epilepsy and a changed personality – but less than six months after he competed in the 430 mile long Yukon Arctic Ultra finishing second. I find his rapid recovery extremely inspirational and reveals what a true sports person mentality he has.

He then famously competed in the boat race in April of this year for Cambridge at the age of 46. This makes him the oldest competitor and winner in the event’s history by 10 years.

There are so many other things that make him one of my biggest role models, such as competing in other gruelling competitions (such as The Race Across the Atlantic which is known as the toughest row in the world) and numerous charitable activities that he has taken part in. However his tenacious and diligent attitude to sport is what inspires me the most, and what all athletes should take from his story.

He famously said in one of his interviews; ‘four years of emotion went into those six minutes out there’ and personally I think this sums up rowing, and sport in general pretty well!

Written by: Amy – Rowing Rep

The game on Saturday evening, where Ireland and Japan were playing each other was a tense and amazing match to watch. Ireland, a strong rugby team who looked like the clear winners before walking onto the pitch got beaten against Japan. Japan played very well with clean ball-handling skills and beautiful interceptions against the strong side.

It shows that despite all expectations that were surrounding the game, Japan trusted in their training and all the hours of their hard work and took the win on home ground in front of the thousands of supporters rooting for them.

Keep an eye on the games to come – this just shows nothing is determined for this world cup!

Have a great week of games everyone! Defy all expectations, whether others or yourself have set them.