24 Scots Selected for Team GB in Athens Olympics
Friday 30 July 2004
With the 2004 Olympic Games only days away, sportscotland is pleased to confirm that 24 Scots have been selected for Team GB and are en route to Athens via final preparation camps in a range of venues including Cyprus, Barcelona, and Manchester. The selected athletes are from eight sports: athletics (5), canoeing (1), cycling (3), hockey – men (4), judo (1), rowing (1), sailing (1) and swimming (8) and include five times Olympian swimmer Alison Sheppard and 17 rookies who are looking forward to their first encounter on the Olympic stage.
All of the athletes have been supported through Lottery funding from either sportscotland’s Talented Athlete Programme or the UK Sport World Class Performance Programme and backed by coaching, sports science and sports medicine support from the Scottish Institute of Sport and Area Institutes of Sport.
" I've won the World Championships before so I know I can beat anyone out there. I'm focusing on both the Team Sprint and the Kilo (1000 metre time-trial) because I have a good chance in both."
Athletics
Watch out for Lee McConnell, 2002 Commonwealth Games silver medallist and 2003 European bronze medallist in the 400m. Lee has her sights firmly set on making the final in Athens and believes a sixth place is within reach. She will be joined in the 4x400m relay by Scottish team mate Carey Marshall.
Ask ballerina turned hammer thrower Shirley Webb what she hopes to achieve in Athens and she will tell you that she wants to register a personal best and throw as far as she can. Ask her coach Chris Black what that might mean, and he will probably tell you that nothing is impossible such has been her improvement over the past few years. Webb sealed her Olympic place when she threw a Scottish record of 67.52 m in Malta in March and with a scientific approach that involves studying hours of video tape of various possible techniques and then putting them into action, Webb and Black believe they have identified a way to maximise her potential at the biggest event of them all.
Kathy Butler has made an impressive return to form this season winning the AAA’s 10,000m Championships to qualify for what will be her second Olympic Games - she competed for Canada in 1996.
A jubilant Nick Smith from Dunfermline has been included in the men’s 4x100m relay squad and is looking forward to his first experience on the Olympic stage.
Canoeing
Campbell Walsh is convinced that he can put last year's World Championship nightmare behind him and win a medal at the Olympics when the kayaking slalom begins in Athens on the 19 August.
Walsh qualified in second place for the World Championships finale last July, but eventually finished in 27th position. Having since moved to the top of the world rankings, he is determined not to leave Athens empty-handed.
Walsh began canoeing in Stirling when he was a boy. His sister Kimberley quickly followed and now also represents Great Britain. Based in Nottingham, his big breakthrough came when he made the senior Great Britain squad for the 1999 World Championships, but it is over the past two years that he has begun to really challenge for the highest honours.
Away from the water he has a reputation for colouring his hair, and may have a surprise in store for Athens.
Cycling
The Scottish trio of Chris Hoy, Craig MacLean and Ross Edgar who took bronze in the Team Sprint at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, have all made it into the GB Team for Athens, which is no mean feat, given the strength of the British squad these days.
Chris Hoy has enlisted the help of former Olympic Champion and Tour de France yellow jersey, Chris Boardman as he makes his final preparations to strike double gold in Athens next month.
Hoy, twice and reigning individual World Champion and a gold-medallist in the kilometre time-trial at the Commonwealth Games in 2002, is leaving no stone unturned as he looks to win the one major honour that has so far eluded him. Hoy was part of the British Team Sprint quartet that won silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but is determined to go one better this time in both the
individual and team events.
"The Olympic Gold is the one I haven't won," said Manchester-based Hoy.
" I've won the World Championships before so I know I can beat anyone out there. I'm focusing on both the Team Sprint and the Kilo (1000 metre time-trial) because I have a good chance in both."
In the 'Kilo', the 28-year-old from Edinburgh will line up against the most formidable opposition in the world, including Frenchman Arnaud Tournant, but he showed earlier this year in winning the Sydney World Cup and the World Championships in Melbourne that he can beat anyone.
Hockey
This has been a bumper year for Scottish men’s hockey with Graham Dunlop, Graham Moodie and Niall Stott all selected for the main squad. In addition David Mitchell has been selected as one of the reserves who will travel to the holding camp in Barcelona and wait to see if he is given a last minute call-up.
The last time Scotland had a player on the Olympic team was Dennis Hay in 1972.
Much of the improvement is put down to the input from the Scottish Institute of Sport. Scotland coach Mathias Ahrens said: “To have four players on the team is a big achievement. It shows the effort that Scotland has put in with the Scottish Institute and the Scottish Hockey Union. It is a great set up and this is the result of four years of very good work. You can’t stress it strongly enough that those partners have really worked so successfully.”
Judo
Sarah Clark, who contributed a silver to Scotland's haul of 10 medals in the
Manchester Commonwealth Games almost exactly two years ago, will also travel to Athens to compete in the 63kg weight class. She took a silver medal at the British trials, another silver at a huge event in Paris in front of 15,000 fans, and then this year, grabbed a bronze medal at the European Championships to seal her Olympic place.
"I wasn't really in the picture in Europe before," admits Clark. "You have to take points from your best four events from last year and this year for Athens and I wasn't really in the running. But my coach gave me loads of encouragement. The last six months everything has come together.”
Now, Clark can realistically attempt to fulfil the dream that she has had since she was a child.
Rowing
Over the last four years Katherine Grainger has consolidated her position at the top of the world rowing scene. Following a silver in Sydney in the quadruple sculls, which was Britain’s first ever women’s Olympic rowing medal, she would love to go one better in Athens. Now competing successfully in the coxless pairs with Cath Bishop (England) they won the world championships in 2003 along with a number of World Cup titles in 2003 and 2004. The pair were overall World Cup winners this season but finished third in the final event in Lucerne, Switzerland which was won by Romania.
Sailing
Golden girl from Sydney, Shirley Robertson will be taking on a new challenge in Athens this year, which will be her fourth Olympic Games. She has changed from the single handed Europe class in which she won gold, to the Yngling class which involves two other team mates. While Shirley will be in uncharted Olympic waters this year the signs are encouraging and a win in the Olympic test event earlier in the year must surely have been a great confidence booster.
Swimming
This is proving a landmark year for Scottish Swimming with the highest ever number of athletes selected for Team GB representation with a total of eight Scots out of 36 swimmers on the Olympic Team.
Look out for five times Olympian, Alison Sheppard who was the only British woman to make a final in Sydney in the 50m freestyle. She would love to end her career with a place on the Athens medal podium.
Other faces to look out for include City of Edinburgh swimmers Ian Edmond and Gregor Tait. Ian will go in the 200m breaststroke and following a silver medal in the 2003 World Championships he is determined to add an Olympic medal to his collection.
Backstroke specialist Gregor Tait has been making steady progress over the last few years and having missed out on a place on the 2000 Olympic team by a few 100th of a second he is determined to make the most of it this time. With a silver medal from the 2002 Commonwealth Games under his belt in the 200m backstroke he knows how much it would mean to repeats the experience in Athens.
The Scottish swimmers will also benefit from having some familiar faces on the GB coaching team with Chris Martin, Scottish Institute of Sport High Performance Coach and Tim Jones, City of Edinburgh Coach also selected.
Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland said: “ We are delighted that Scotland has such strong representation at the Olympic Games and with some realistic medal chances. sportscotland is committed to investing in elite athletes through the development of quality training and competition facilities, Athlete Support funding as well as the Scottish Institute of Sport and Area Institute network.
“We wish them all every success and hope that their dedication and achievements which will be watched by millions will inspire other young people to take part in sport.”
Alistair Gray, Chairman of the Scottish Institute of Sport said: “We are proud to have experienced Institute athletes, together with some who will be attending their first Olympic Games, representing GB in Athens. These great Scots are highly motivated, talented and committed individuals. This is the first full Olympic cycle for the Institute and their athletes. During the last four years their coaches and professionally qualified service providers have worked alongside the Institute team to help the athletes fulfil their dreams. I wish all our athletes, their coaches and those who have supported them, a successful Games.”
24 SCOTTISH ATHLETES SELECTED FOR TEAM GB
- Kathy Butler (Born Edinburgh) – Athletics *
- Lee McConnell (Glasgow) – Athletics *
- Carey Marshall (Motherwell) – Athletics *
- Nick Smith (Dunfermline) – Athletics *
- Shirley Webb (Edinburgh) – Athletics *
- Campbell Walsh (Bridge of Allan) – Canoeing *
- Ross Edgar – (Newmarket – Scottish parents) - Cycling
- Chris Hoy (Edinburgh) – Cycling *
- Craig MacLean (Grantown-on-Spey) – Cycling *
- Graham Dunlop (Glasgow) – Hockey **
- David Mitchell (Motherwell) – Hockey travelling reserve *
- Graham Moodie (Balerno) – Hockey *
- Niall Stott (Dundee) – Hockey *
- Sarah Clark (Edinburgh) – Judo *
- Katherine Grainger (Aberdeen ) – Rowing *
- Shirley Robertson (born Dundee) – Sailing
- Kirsty Balfour (Edinburgh) – Swimming *
- Caitlin McClatchey (Northampton – Scottish parents) – Swimming
- Alison Sheppard (Greenloaning, born Glasgow) – Swimming *
- David Carry (Aberdeen) – Swimming *
- Todd Cooper (Stirling) – Swimming *
- Ian Edmond (Edinburgh) – Swimming *
- Graeme Smith (born Falkirk) – Swimming *
- Gregor Tait – (Edinburgh) Swimming *
* Scottish Institute of Sport Athlete
- Visit the Olympic section of our website for more in depth athlete interviews, Olympic schedule and results service www.sportscotland.org.uk
- The 2004 Olympic Games are being held in Athens 13-29 August and Paralympics 17-28 September.
- The Scottish Institute of Sport is dedicated to assisting Scotland’s top athletes in their quest for world class achievement. The Institute provides individually tailored support programmes and services including sports science, medical support, nutrition, strength and conditioning, performance lifestyle guidance and expert technical coaching which are designed to enhance performance and create winners.