Athlete Development Programme trip to Loughborough University

On Wednesday November 9th, twenty-six students from our Athlete Development Programme visited the fantastic sporting facilities at Loughborough University.

After a warm welcome, we were straight into action, looking around the very impressive Powerbase gym. We were told that top sports stars, such as Adam Peaty, Anthony Joshua and Louise Hansson can often be seen training here, although we didn’t spot any famous faces on this occasion from our perch on the viewing balcony.

Next, we moved into a lecture hall for a presentation about all the amazing opportunities on offer at the University. We also had a question-and-answer session with two of their Performance Athletes from the hockey programme. They explained to the pupils how Performance Athletes and team members from all sports were able to access the various facilities around the campus and what a typical training week might look like.

En-route to lunch, we popped in to see the amazing 50m pool. It wasn’t just our swimmers who were impressed by this magnificent facility, adorned with world-record plaques and 20ft high pictures of the Olympic swimmers who Loughborough has produced over the last few years. To round off this part of the visit, one of those on show, Luke Greenbank, casually walked past us, having just finished a session. Seeing a medal winner from various World, European and Olympic Championships in the flesh can only have helped to inspire the pupils. In a few short years, they could potentially see themselves training at the same facility as such athletes.

The celebrity-athlete spotting didn’t stop there, as the cricketers, in particular, were especially excited to bump into ex-England cricket captain, and current test-team batter Joe Root.

After a healthy lunch in the Elite Athlete Centre, we continued our tour of the campus, dropping in on the various facilities and watching a variety of BUCS matches.

It was also great to catch up with a couple of OVs. George is a current student at Loughborough University and joined us for lunch and the afternoon activities. Sam is an alumnus of Loughborough University and an England and GB long-jumper and was completing a training session in the impressive indoor Athletics Centre We also managed to wave to Alex, who is a current student, playing down on the netball court, but didn’t get to say hello.

Overall, we had a fantastic day, and the pupils were inspired to consider all that goes into becoming an elite performer. Many are now seriously considering Loughborough as potential option for study after post A levels.