Did Olympian medal winners or notable inspiring Sports people visit your school?

[Bedford Roughyed]

Curious if your school was visited?

Inspired by this thread -
 

 

[Bedford Roughyed]

As this isn't in politics maybe no class war stuff!  Genuinely curious.

[Spidey]

One of my classmates sister won silver in the Commonwealth games in Auckland 1988ish?  She came to assembly and showed us the medal. Don’t know if anybody who then went on to have a swimming career though

[17 stone giant]

Not that I can recall, no.

But the shop next to our school sold Lucozade, which is what Daley Thompson drank.

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

In 1984 David Wilkie came to our school to da a sponsored run(so many laps round the pling fields) everybody had a good time, we all had our photo taken with him and his car didn't even get vandalised.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I think the only sportsman that ever visited our school was the shining example of perfect life () that was Dean Windass and that was just cos he was mates with one of the teachers.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Des Drummond visited us, that’s it.

[M j M]

Geoff Capes came to our school to launch some fundraising for a new science wing or similar (private school).

I have this really strong memory of him being set up to do some performative stunt, like pulling a JCB or something but he couldn't do it and eventually just gave up!

We also had Brian Smith come in and do a talk, arranged by our RL-mad Head of English.

[JohnM]

The modern Olympics hadn't even been thought of when I was at school. 

[Futtocks]

I alternated between state and public schools a few times. At one of the latter, Jeffrey Archer was a parent of two pupils there and one of the very few things he's claimed that is actually true is that he did represent his country as a sprinter, albeit not at the Olympics.

He, being Jeffrey Archer, made a big deal of this at the annual school sports day. He'd commandeer a changing room to put on full athletics gear and win the Dads' fun-run by miles. He would always bitterly dispute being out in the pupils v parents cricket match.

Everyone absolutely despised him and that was years before his political career peaked and the rest of the country caught up with us.

[Maximus Decimus]

As a teacher, we've had a few visitors in schools I've been in, but none of which were what you'd call top level.

There was this one guy, Tom something or other who was an 800/1500m runner IIRC. He might have had a commonwealth medal. He spoke about what his life looks like, and how often he trains. I'll always remember he jumped up on the spot and felt like he was about my height.

Bit of a strange situation though, they were trying to get the kids to sponsor him or something. 

 

[Maximus Decimus]

2 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

As a teacher, we've had a few visitors in schools I've been in, but none of which were what you'd call top level.

There was this one guy, Tom something or other who was an 800/1500m runner IIRC. He might have had a commonwealth medal. He spoke about what his life looks like, and how often he trains. I'll always remember he jumped up on the spot and felt like he was about my height.

Bit of a strange situation though, they were trying to get the kids to sponsor him or something. 

 

Just looked it up, Tom Lancashire.

[Futtocks]

6 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Just looked it up, Tom Lancashire.

A very good, but not top-rank middle-distance runner. But Wikipedia tells me he did once win the 1500m at the Bislett Diamond League meet, which is a genuine big deal in Track & Field terms..

[tonyXIII]

Not as a pupil, but years later, as a teacher, I remember one of the javelin stars visiting our school. Embarrassingly, I cannot remember whether it was Tessa Sanderson or Fatima Whitbread, but it was definitely one of those two. It was an enjoyable day. The children were excited and the sun shone. Considering how isolated Whitby is, it was heart-warming to see a famous athlete visit us.

Why can't I remember who it was? Either it's old age or it's the passage of time or, just possibly, both of them visited a few years apart. If I contact Karen (the girls' PE teacher), I'll ask her.

[Eddie]

I went to an extremely scally comprehensive and David Wilkie turned up (circa 1988), I can’t remember why, something to do with a sponsored run I think. 

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

14 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I went to an extremely scally comprehensive and David Wilkie turned up (circa 1988), I can’t remember why, something to do with a sponsored run I think. 

haha read my post further from yesterday.

[tonyXIII]

Just heard back from Karen. It was Tessa Sanderson, Karen says she still has the photo.

PS. It was a state school, and a bloody good one.

Edited July 30 by tonyXIII

[The Future is League]

On 30/07/2024 at 02:57, Gerrumonside ref said:

Des Drummond visited us, that’s it.

Plus he was a teacher as well.

[gazza77]

Does Lee Crooks count?

[Click]

I believe the only olympian that visited the school was a diver who previously attended my school in his youth. (Can't remember his name, but I remember the picture up in the school hall of him)

I know Alex Yee visited my old school after Tokyo to show his silver medal as it is his old primary school. I am sure he will probably visit again to show his gold medal after this mornings performance.

(State school, not private)

[JonM]

Only person I ever remember visiting school was Roger McGough (or it might have been Adrian Henri). As far as I know, none of us were inspired to become poets as a result. 

Edited August 1 by JonM