The Olympics is the pinnacle of sporting events, with athletes travelling from every part of the globe to compete for a world famous gold medal. Earning the title of Olympic champion is the ultimate goal for any athlete, more so than any other major championship. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, taking place a year later because of Covid. The world’s best did not disappoint, putting on a spectacle that wrote itself straight into the history books. As a result of the postponement, sports fans only have to wait three years of the next Olympics, taking place in Paris in 2024. Olympic athletes hoping for glory in Paris shifted their focus immediately after Tokyo, including some who have also got a degree to study for. Let Freshered guide you through some of the students who will gunning for gold in 2024.
Keely Hodgkinson
Hodgkinson will be no stranger to Paris 2024 Games as she made her Olympic debut at Tokyo in the summer of 2020. However, she did more than just make up the numbers in Japan. The runner from Atherton finished second in the 800m, meaning she left Tokyo with a silver medal aged just 19. As well as an Olympic medal, Hodgkinson’s time in final broke the British record, held for 26 years by Dame Kelly Holmes, an icon of British athletics. As well as going head to head with the world’s best, she is studying criminology and psychology at Leeds Beckett University, taking a gap year to allow full focus on the Olympics. Hodgkinson will be hoping to turn silver into gold in Paris, after her graduation of course.
Lily Walker
Walker is one of the most exciting prospects in English Hockey. This is exemplified with her being awarded the Emerging Performance Player of the Year Award in 2020. Moreover, she was included in the 2021 Junior Women’s World Cup Squad. Her stock continues to rise, with Walker added to the Team GB squad ahead of the Paris 2024 cycle. This achievement is made even more impressive given the Team GB Women won the gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Walker seems certain to cement her place in the squad, accumulating in a starring role in Paris. She balances her hockey with a degree in Social Policy at the University of Birmingham.
Tom Dean
The 21-year-old caught the attention of the nation during the Tokyo Olympics, where his exploits in the pool led to a record that hadn’t been achieved for 113 years. Dean brought home gold in the 200 metre freestyle, leading a British 1-2 with teammate Duncan Scott taking home silver. The two then combined to see Team GB to victory in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay. Dean’s double victory meant he became the first male swimmer to win two gold medals since the 1908 Olympics in London. The swimmer definitely has a fun fact to break the ice with when he heads back to his mechanical engineering degree at the University of Bath. Dean will undoubtedly be one of the favourites to reclaim his title in three years.
Oliver Dustin
The final athlete on this list is another University of Birmingham student. Dustin, originally from Cumbria, also competes in the 800 metres, an event which he earned the title of Under-20 European Champion. In the build up to the Tokyo Olympics, Dustin competed at a meet in Nice. The time he not only broke Lord Sebastian Coe’s under-23 British record, he went on to become Olympic champion. His second-place finish at the Olympic trials confirmed his place at the Tokyo games, where he finished 6th in his heats. No doubt Dustin will be back to improve in Paris, after he graduates from his MSc in Chemistry.