Oxford's Olympic stars reunite

A sporting panel discussion was chaired by Dr David Hemery, an alumnus of St Catherine’s College and a past Olympic and Commonwealth champion in the 400 metre hurdles.

The panel featured Grace Clough, a current Master’s student in Sociology at Kellogg College and a 2016 Paralympic gold medallist in rowing; and Dan Fox, who studied a BA and PGCE at St Edmund Hall and represented Team GB in hockey in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Other panellists included Peter Reed, who studied Engineering Science at Oriel College and won Olympic gold medals in the rowing four and eight; and Sophia Saller, a current student in Mathematics who was world under-23 triathlon champion in 2014.

The event was also attended by other Olympians, past and present, including Barbara Slater, Allan Jay, Zoe de Toledo, Paul Bennett, Olivier Siegelaar, Dr Zoe Lee, Sir Roger Bannister, Michael Ralph, Pauline Janson, Annabel Eyres, Dr Nick Howarth, Justin Frishberg, Colin Smith, Dr Paul Mattick, Jonny Searle, Richard Fishlock, John Chester, Graham Cooper and Alexander Lindsay.

In all, 283 Oxford graduates have taken part in the Olympics over the years, winning 167 medals – 84 of which were gold.

The event was held at the Weston Library, and was generously supported by Dr Aron Ping D'Souza.