15 BUCS athletes have walked away with gold medals so far in the Paris 2024 Olympics and we’re only just over half way through.
A long list of former and current BUCS athletes headed out to Paris just over a week ago for the Summer Olympics. After an unforgettable opening ceremony along the river Seine, our first look at BUCS athletes was in the GB Men’s hockey team as they faced off against Spain in a 4-0 opening day win. The men’s hockey team stayed unbeaten in the group stages before coming up against India in the quarter final. Despite a red card for their opponents, a shootout finally saw the Men’s GB squad out of the competition on Sunday afternoon. The women’s GB side made their way through their group with 2 wins and 3 losses and are set to face the Netherlands in a quarter final on Monday afternoon.
The women’s rugby sevens squad had a Games to remember, defeating Ireland in their first game and making their way to the quarter finals, before ultimately losing to the now bronze medallists USA. The Games for the women’s side came full circle as they defeated Ireland one more time 28-12 to take home a 7th placed finish.
We didn’t have to wait long for our first medal, as Anna Henderson pedalled her way to a silver medal in the women’s time trial on the first day of competition around the streets of Paris on her Olympic debut. Anna also placed an impressive 9th overall in the road race. Away from the dramatic finish to the medal places in the mountain biking Charlie Aldridge placed 8th. There’s more cycling action this evening but this time on the track with Dan Bingham, Sophie Capewell and Joe Truman (reserve) all in action.
Our first gold medal came at the hands of Ros Canter who helped her team pick up the team eventing gold medal 7 days ago and write herself into the history books.
Talking of history, over to the pool where it was non stop action for our BUCS athletes all week. As expected, Dan Wiffen from Loughborough stole the show in the French capital not only taking gold in the 800m final but setting a new Olympic record with a time of 7:38:19. Dan added to his medal tally in the 1500m coming away with a bronze medal falling short to a new world record holder. This isn’t the last of him for the Games though, as he’ll be back in action in the 10k open water swim. A further 23 BUCS athletes from Team GB alone competed in the pool over the past week with Tom Dean and Duncan Scott claiming gold in their 4x200m freestyle relay, defending their title from Tokyo 2020. Other notable achievements in the pool came from Ben Proud with silver in the 50m freestyle, a Scottish record for Keanna MacInnes in the 100m butterfly and British record for Max Lichfield in the 400IM.
Staying on the water but heading outside and to the Varies-sur-Marne Nautical stadium and the rowing, where former BUCS athletes picked up 9 gold medals across 3 events. The first came from Lauren Henry, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw in the women’s quad sculls. The next from Imogen Grant in the lightweight double sculls who banished any demons from Tokyo 2020 when her and teammate Emily Craig raced the perfect race to claim the top spot. The final came in the men’s 8s where Harry Brightmore, Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, James Rudkin and Tom Ford stormed their way to victory to be crowned Olympic champions.
Further down the coast line we had Freya Black, James Peters and Fynn Sterritt in the sailing. A tricky few days with the winds not playing ball meant that Freya finished in 16th place over all with the boys taking a 7th placed finish down in Marseille.
The final golds from week one came in the much debated triathlon, after a delayed race date for the men we started first with the women’s race on Tuesday where the French and Cassandre Laure Beaugran took home the first medal of the day. The men’s followed shortly after for what turned out to be a truly dramatic race. Heading into the race team GB’s Alex Yee was sure favourite but in the closing stages it looked like he was going to have to settle for silver. However, in true Yee style, he turned on the afterburners and crossed the line in the gold medal position after running a 27:51.94 10k. The triathletes were back in action on Monday morning for the mixed relay finishing in dramatic fashion with the call for second and third place going down to a photo finish with Team GB ultimately taking the bronze medal.
In the Boxing Ring, Delicious Orie and Rosie Eccles had their Olympic dreams shattered in bouts that caused great controversy. Lewis Richardson lives on in the Light-Middleweight category though, and has punched his way into a semi final and a guaranteed medal.
Away from the ring, at the judo mat, Prisca Awiti took home a silver medal in the -63kg catergoy and writes herself into Mexican history, making her their first silver medal winner in the sport’s history.
The athletes will dominate the headlines over the next week with the action getting underway over the weekend with at least 27 BUCS athletes due to be competing. First up was the 4x400m mixed relay where Loughborough’s Alex Haydock-Wilson took bronze and broke a National record. All eyes then turned to the 100m with Louie Hinchcliffe on the track, he just missed out on a spot in the final after not achieving the qualifying time in the semis but did beat out eventful winner Noah Lyles in his heat. A flurry of heats took place over the weekend too for our Athletes - keep an eye out on social media for the results of their semi finals coming up soon. The most notable news from Athletics happened this morning with gold medallist hopeful Molly Caudery not making her first height in the pole vault and sadly exiting the competition.
There lots more action still to take place in Paris so keep an eye on the BUCS social channels as we continue to follow our athletes in the French capital.
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