The Commonwealth Games: 1 month on and we're still OBSESSED!

inspiredthroughsport
May 3, 2018
5 min read

Unless you were living under a rock over the last month, you will have seen the absolute awesomeness that was the Commonwealth Games – and more specifically, the home nation teams!

A month on, and we are still buzzing from the Games and we’ve been catching up with some of our athletes who were out there competing (or maybe it’s more accurate to say ‘out there Smashing it!).

Chris Gregory

To kick things off, we just could not write this without talking about Chris Gregory – now beach volleyball isn’t that ‘mainstream’ of a sport in this country, (I can’t think why - bad weather, rough sand beaches, seems like the perfect combination!), so we don’t usually see much in the media about it, but last month the England Volleyball duo that is Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf were splashed all over the telly! We were all absolutely wrapped up in their fairy-tale story. The pair had overcome incredibly severe financial strain, and whereas their competitors nearly all seem to train on ‘state-of-the-art’ beach volleyball courts, these two had to face freezing conditions in their training base (which from all accounts is a small hanger with sand in it!), and to top it all off, Chris had battled through having heart surgery!

Despite this, the two have managed to climb the world rankings from 300th to 65th and last month they managed to get themselves into the bronze medal match! Unfortunately, after battling right to the end, they lost to New Zealand and placed 4th – whilst we know this will have been disappointing to them, we think the whole country would agree that they’ve done amazingly and inspired so many!

Here's what Chris had to say about the Games:

"The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games was an incredible and life-changing experience. To be part of Team England was special, inspiring and part of a bigger journey I'll never forget. To be part of history as a competitor in the first ever showcase of Beach Volleyball in the Commonwealths is also a great moment for England Beach Volleyball, as well as the sport itself. The support and atmosphere we had the chance to be a part of was also something unique in any athletes career as a competitor. Everything was fantastic with the exception of finishing 4th and not quite making the podium which was our goal going into the Commonwealths. However, our opposition played really solid in the medal matches and I think we can be proud of what we achieved in reaching the medal matches position.

I feel we've done what we could throughout our journey to raise the profile of the sport, and be good ambassadors for beach volleyball at home. The exposure beach volleyball received throughout the Commonwealths was amazing, and I think its certainly helped the great spectacle and competitiveness of our sport reach a lot more over the weeks of the Games. A medal would've been the ultimate happy ending to the story, but I think we've still been on amazing journey, that has a great story to it, and many lessons taken from it that we can still share. I hope we get the chance to go again, and go just another result better to secure that medal for England on home soil in Birmingham 2022."

Lauren Price

It’s almost hard to know where to start with the Welsh Legend that is Lauren Price, I mean the woman is an absolute machine; not only has she represented Wales in Football and been a four-time World Champion Kickboxer, but since she’s turned her attention to boxing, she’s won a ton of European and Commonwealth silverware!

It’s fair to say that going into the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Lauren had been pegged as ‘one to watch’, so there was obviously some pressure to perform - a mere mortal may have let the nerves of this pressure get to them, but not Lauren, she punched her way through the tournament and took home the Gold.

It’s hard to know just how far Lauren will go, to us, she is an unstoppable force and the sky’s the limit!

Reuben Arthur

Reuben Arthur is a sprinter who has been with us since our inception and we view him as a core part of the ITS family, meaning that we’ve always kept a very close eye on his journey. He has had the classic story of being an athlete who has had to balance training, education (as he’s currently studying for a degree in Psychology) along with trying to earn money to continue to train. We’ve loved being able to watch his career go to new heights during 2018: to kick off the year, back in January he set an indoor personal best of 6.68 seconds over 60m (that is quick!); after that, he was selected to make his Team England debut at the 2018 Commonwealth Games to compete in the 100m relay team (huge achievement in itself); but to top things off, he and the rest of the relay team managed to battle their way to taking GOLD at the Commonwealth Games! If he’s achieved all of this in just four months, we can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will hold for him.

Livvy Breen

Livvy Breen is one of those Paralympic athletes that really lives up to the ‘Superhumans’ label that Channel 4 give them; she is not only a multiple World and Paralympic medalist, but she’s a World and Paralympic medalist in two different disciplines as she competes in the 100m sprint in the T38 class, as well as the F38 Long jump! Anyone else feeling at all inferior at the moment?

Going into the Commonwealth Games, she was obviously down as a favourite to come out with some bling, but who knew she would not only get a bronze in the 100m, but also GOLD in the long jump.

Olivia said to us “I am so happy to have achieved this result, to have become Commonwealth Champion is a dream come true. I am incredibly grateful to my coach, family and friends and Team Wales for all their amazing support. Not to mention Australia who have totally got behind the Games and supported all the Nations competing”.

No matter medals, or no medals, it is fair to say that they have done us proud and inspired a nation!

If you’ve been inspired and want to book one of our Commonwealth athletes for a school or

business visit, click here.

All photos credited to Getty Images.