With the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics taking place this summer, there will be a number of Gloucestershire-based athletes hoping to return back to England with a medal around their neck.
Gloucestershire boast a number of impressive athletes who have won varying medals over the years. Here is a list of some local athletes who have had success at past Olympic games:
Pete Reed:
Brought up in Nailsworth – where he now has two gold-painted post-boxes to celebrate his achievements – Reed became a triple Olympic champion at Rio 2016 in rowing, after winning gold at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Reed was born in Seattle, Washington, United States, but he moved to Gloucestershire from a young age and attended Cirencester College.
Despite coming away from the last three games with gold medals, it won’t be four-in-a-row for Reed, who retired from rowing in 2018, and has suffered injury problems since.
Charlotte Dujardin:
A dressage legend, Dujardin has scooped three gold medals and a silver in just two Olympics.
The 35-year-old won gold in team and individual dressage at London 2012, with an individual gold in 2016 and a silver in the team event.
Dujardin – whose yard is in Newent in the Forest of Dean – is excepted to compete in Tokyo this summer.
She has however won all of her Olympic medals with Valegro, who retired in 2016, just after succeeding in Rio.
Matt Gotrel:
Another rower, Gotrel won gold in the men’s eight alongside Reed in 2016.
Still in the early years of his career at the age of 32, the man from Chipping Campden has won back-to-back World Championship titles, and he has claimed a European silver and bronze. He has been active in recent competitions and is expected to make the cut for Team GB in Rio.
Ashleigh Ball:
Born in Brighton, hockey player Ball was raised in Cheltenham, and won bronze in her first ever Olympic games – London 2012.
Since making her debut in 2008, Ball was an ever-present for Team GB in European, Olympic and Commonwealth games, but hasn’t featured since 2015.
Alex Gregory:
Gloucestershire really does have a knack of producing great rowers.
Gregory didn’t make his Olympic bow until 2012, after narrowly missing out on being selected for Beijing 2008, however, he had immediate success, winning gold in the Coxless four at Eton Dorney along with Reed.
He repeated that triumph four years later by claiming gold in Rio in the same event.
Vicky Holland:
Holland made history at Rio 2016 by becoming the first British woman to win a medal in the triathlon.
It was a vast improvement from her debut in London four years earlier, where she finished 26th.
Her bronze medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 acted as the catalyst for her future success.
Born in Gloucester, Holland has been selected for Tokyo 2020 along with Georgia Taylor-Brown and Jess Learmonth for the triathlon.
