Manchester Sports Personalities & Champions

Manchester
Sports & Olympic Champions (8 of 8)

Stephen Parry

Born on 2nd March 1977 in Manchester, Stephen Parry is one the country's most successful swimmers. He won a bronze medal in the 200 metres butterfly event at the Athens Olympics in 2004, having already won silver in that event and bronze in the 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. He is the holder of several British and European records. Stephen is rated as one of Britain's greatest ever swimmers and earned himself eleven major medals in a career spanning over 10 years, at the European championships as well representing his country at the World championships. Now retired from competition, Stephen remains committed to the sport of swimming and encouraging both novice and champions swimmers at his club, Stockport Metro, and across the country through his organisation, TotalSwimming.

Chris Hoy

Chris Hoy is an Olympic Games gold and silver medallist and an Olympic and World record holder. Born on 23 March 1976 in Edinburgh, and a keen BMX cyclist as a boy, he left Moray House School of Education (University of Edinburgh) with a degree in sports science in 1999. Career highlights and accolades include seven times World Champion, European Champion, two times Commonwealth Champion. In the 2005 New Year's Honours list, Hoy was awarded an MBE for services to cycling. Chris won Gold in the 1 kilometre time trial on the opening day of track competition in Athens 2004 to give the Team GB Cycling team a tremendous boost. Four years previously, he had taken Silver in the team sprint with Craig Maclean and Jason Queally in Sydney 2000 at his first Olympic games. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics he won 3 gold medals in cycling events. Later that year he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year and in the New Years Honours List, he was awarded a knighthood - now Sir Christopher Hoy MBE. Chris currently lives in Salford.

Steven Burke

Steven Burke was born on 4th March 1988 in Burnley and is a resident of Colne, Lancashire. Part of a cycling family where his mother rode for team GBR, Olympic Cyclist Steven Burke took the bronze medal in the individual pursuit in Beijing 2008. Steven had previously won Gold in team pursuit in round 4 of 2008 World Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark. Recently opened a new state-of-the-art fitness centre at Nelson & Colne College, which was also was named after him. Steven had been a former student at the college.

Rebecca Romera

Born on 24 January 1980 in Carshalton, Rebecca Romera, currently a Manchester resident, was originally a rower, before turning her specialisation to cycling. Olympic silver medallist in the quadruple sculls at Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Romera went on to take the silver medal in the women's individual pursuit event at the 2007 World Championships in Mallorca. Rebecca had taken up rowing by chance when she was aged seventeen and joined the Kingston Rowing Club where she progressed from novice to Under-23 international in eight months and finished fifth in the quadruple sculls at the World Championships in 2001 and 2002. After racing doubles in 2003 she returned to the quad in Olympic year to take the silver medal. In 2005 her crew took revenge for the Olympic defeat winning the World Championship Gold medal in Gifu Japan. After a break due to injury, she decided to retire from rowing and turned her attention to cycling. She won her first race to become British Champion and made the World Championship team in 2007. She has a degree in Sports Science and English and a diploma in Marketing Communications.

Bradley Wiggins

Born in Ghent in Belgium on 28th April 1980, Chorley resident Bradley Wiggins was brought up in London and followed in his father's footsteps when he took up cycling. It was the success of Chris Boardman in Barcelona which inspired the 12 year old Wiggins to take up the sport. Within six years he had become World Junior Pursuit champion and then turned professional. In 2003 Bradley really hit the headlines with victory in the World Championships 4km Individual Pursuit (and silver in the Team Pursuit). Then in Athens he won the gold medal. In 2004 he received an OBE in the New Year's Honours list. In 2006 he raced in the Tour de France and was appointed London's Cycling Ambassador. He went on to take two gold medals at the UCI World Track Championships in Palma, Mallorca. Victories in the Individual Pursuit and Team Pursuit. In the 2008 Olympics he participated in the Individual Pursuit, the Men's Madison and Team Pursuit races, a winning gold medallist and a new world record for the event.

Ben Ainslie

Born in Macclesfield on 5th February 1977 Ben Ainslie is Britain's most successful Olympic sailor, together with 1960s/70s Olympian Rodney Pattison. In 2008, Ben won his third successive Olympic gold medal, and fourth Olympic medal in Beijing. He will be just 31 years old. Ben is the youngest British Olympic sailing medallist, he was only 19 when he made his Olympic debut in the Laser class at the Centennial games in 1996 in Atlanta. By the time he arrived at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 he had already won the Laser World Championship in 1998 and 1999. Ben has won eight World and European Championships in his sailing career to date, been crowned ISAF World Sailor of the Year in 1998 and 2002, and four times won British Yachtsman of the Year. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics he won a gold medal in the Heavy Weight Dinghy Finn event.

Keri-Anne Payne

Keri-Anne Payne was actually born in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 9th December 1987 but currently lives in Heywood, Lancashire, trains under Sean Kelly and swims for Stockport Metros at the Grand Central Pool in Stockport. She had previously been a swimming partner with Stephen Parry (see above), whom she cites as a major influence in her career. Although Keri had swum since early childhood and gathered a sizeable collection of trophies and wins in the sport, it was at the tender age of 14 that she made her first real foray into the books at the European Championships and World School Championships in 2002, as well as notable World Cup gold medals in Melbourne and Shanghai in that same year. She had also won gymnastics and netball awards as a youngster. Her first senior international meet and gold medal win in Freestyle was at the European Short Course Championships in 2004. But she came to a wider public attention when she won a silver medal over 10 kilometres at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. At the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, held in Rome, as part of the GB British Gas Team, she won the 10 kilometres open water race, finishing first to take a Gold medal in a time of two hours, one minute and 37.1 seconds.

Keri-Anne's website: www.keriannepayne.com

Beth Tweddle

Elizabeth "Beth" Kimberly Tweddle was born on 1 April 1985. Tweddle became the World Champion on the floor exercise at the O2 Arena in London in October 2009, and was the 2006 World Champion and European Champion on the uneven bars. Tweddle was the first gymnast from Britain ever to win a medal at the World and European Championships, and is considered to be the most successful British gymnast of all time. She has also been British National Champion seven times, having won the title every consecutive year between 2001 and 2007. Although she was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the family moved to live in Bunbury, Cheshire, where she grew up. She had been bitterly disappointed when she had to withdraw from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a result of a rib injury, but is flying high with expectation for a major medal win in the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics before a 'home' crowd.