UK: ATHLETICS: Four young athletes competing for different nations put Plymouth College, a secondary school, on the map

Record ID: 330763

  • Title: UK: ATHLETICS: Four young athletes competing for different nations put Plymouth College, a secondary school, on the map
  • Date: 10th June 2012
  • Summary: PHOTO OF DALEY AFTER HE WON TWO GOLD MEDALS AT THE 2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES IN DELHI
  • Embargoed: 25th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA1GUEJJG764JXCKP6K8DIGYR5N
  • Story Text: There will be around 10,500 athletes from 144 countries competing at the London Olympic Games this summer. Athletes will be coming from every corner of the earth to take part in sport's premier event.
    Four of them come from the same school - Plymouth College in south west England - with all of them are representing different countries.
    Three of them are swimmers; Ruta Meilutyte, just turned 15 years of age, will represent Lithuania, Jade Howard, 17, swims for Zambia and Jamila Lunkuse, 15, will compete for Uganda.
    The fourth Olympian is British diver Tom Daley, aged 18, one of his country's biggest medal hopes for this summer.
    For the three swimmers it will be their first Olympics and the enormity of the event is only just sinking in.
    "With everything going around like the Olympic torch and all the other events happening around the country it's made reality hit but it's still hard to believe," Howard said.
    Plymouth College, a fee-paying school, only has 530 students and it has never had a pupil in the Olympic Games so to have four in one year is extraordinary.
    "It's brilliant, it's like going to Olympian school," said Meilutyte. "It makes me really proud and I think it is something different isn't it just knowing that there are other people in the same position as you.
    "It's obviously a big support as well."
    Meilutyte is the best female Lithuanian swimmer and is currently ranked in the top 10 in the world for the 100-metre breaststroke. Meilutyte has swam the third quickest time in the world this year (1.07:30) and has a genuine chance of winning a medal this summer but as it is her first Olympics she is setting a modest target.
    "I'm not expecting to win a medal," she said. "I think I'm still quite young and I just don't want to try to achieve something unachievable. To make a final would be quite a challenge."
    Howard and Lunkuse, just like Meilutyte, are also the best female swimmers for their respective nations.
    In fact, Howard is just one of six athletes who will represent Zambia in London.
    "Obviously Zambia is nowhere near as developed as Britain so there's not many sporting facilities," Howard said. "There's not many opportunities for loads of people to get training in so it's quite sad."
    Howard explained it was for these reasons she moved to Plymouth last year with everything the school offers..
    Plymouth College has a partnership with local swimming club Plymouth Leander, which has 60 swimmers at national standard and nearly 20 at international standard.
    There are swimmers from 15 different nations who are members of Leander and attend Plymouth College. These students are part of the school's swimming programme which provides them with scholarships, boarding house accommodation and a flexible studying regime so they can achieve high results both in the pool and in the classroom.
    Plymouth College is the best swimming school in England and has been for the last five years winning copious numbers of national awards.
    John Rudd is Plymouth College's director of swimming and the Head Coach of Leander.
    "We've had swimmers at world level, European Commonwealth levels in recent years but these are our first Olympians and that's a very special moment for us," Rudd said. "I've been coaching 20 years in Plymouth so to have our first Olympians particularly on home soil is a great moment for us."
    Rudd was also adamant that the link between the school and Leander was all important.
    "Without that link one would not have been successful without the other so Plymouth Leander provides a lot of the swimming support and Plymouth College provides the boarding support for the athletes that come from around the country and around the world and provides what we all think is a first class education," Rudd added.
    "So the two things together; it's a really good partnership."
    Lunkuse and Daley were unanimous that the programme offered by Plymouth College was crucial to enable all the athletes at the school achieve their potential.
    "The school's been really supportive with all my school work and training, they understand. Training's been really good," said Lunkuse.
    "I found it hard for the first six months which I was here because training back home was so much different but when you get used to it it's really good and you come away with good aspects at the end," she said.
    Daley added: "I think it's very important to try and balance diving with school work and social life and things like that because you have to be normal at the end of the day," Daley said. "You have to have something to fall back on and the people at Plymouth College have been so supportive at helping me do the right amount of school work and catching up when I go away.
    "I can have lessons when I'm away too so Plymouth College have been fantastic with helping me stay with my A-Levels and also dive to the best of my ability too."
    At 18 years of age Daley is the most experienced of the four athletes having competed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
    Daley is on a similar scholarship scheme to the swimmers and since he joined the school in 2009 he has won gold medals at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and the European Championships.
    The diver has achieved A-grades in all his A-level examinations which qualify for university entrance. It is this balance which Plymouth College's headmaster, Dr Simon Wormleighton, believes is essential.
    "The balance is really important," Dr Wormleighton said. "We expect the swimmers to achieve just as good academic results at the end of the day as the non-swimmers.
    "And indeed they usually end up in the top 10 percent of their cohort. It's not hard to see why.
    "The determination, focus, motivation to drive they have spills over into everything else they do and particularly into academic studies and the expectations are just as high for them."
    The swimming programme has developed significantly since Dr Wormleighton joined Plymouth College in 2006. The school also has a modern pentathlon programme and excels in basketball and rugby as well.
    There are 15 nations represented in the swimming programme but the school has students from 28 nations who are also attracted by the school's education programme.
    Plymouth College has had a large international contingent for a number of decades but the last few years has seen it become more internationally focused and students now have the option of doing the International Baccalaureate syllabus.
    This creates a mix of training and academic support for the athletes which has seen the number of elite athletes at the school grow over the last few years.
    A former student, Cassie Patten, won a bronze medal in the open water event at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 but if any of the four athletes were to win a medal this year they would become the first pupil to win one while still attending the school.
    "To win a medal at his young age would be absolutely fantastic," Dr Wormleighton said. "I mean he has to stand a good chance. He has achieved so much.
    "But we hope he's not our only medal we have high expectations for the others as well."
    And it is those high expectations coupled with the programme offered by Plymouth College and Plymouth Leander that has created this 'Olympian School'.
    Plans are already in place for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero where the expectations are to have even more athletes across a wider range of sports.
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