As the gold medals keep coming for Australian athletes in Paris, one Catholic school in country Western Australia is proud of the reputation it’s building up – a school with a knack for producing Olympians. Source: ABC News.
Four Bunbury Catholic College alumni are competing in the Olympics this year; Lauren Reynolds (BMX,) Jake Harvie (hockey,) Kyle Lee (marathon swimming) and Alex Saffy (paralympic swimming).
The school is also the alma mater of former Olympic rower Alexandra Hagan.
Seeing their former classmates compete overseas has filled students, like year seven girl Emily Irving, with pride.
“It’s wild, “ she said. “Someone like us has made it all the way to the Paris Olympics just from a background like this.”
As a young soccer player, Emily hopes she’ll also represent Australia one day.
She’s not alone.
The school is brimming with students chasing the Olympic dream.
For swimmer Ingrid Blandford, her dream of making the Olympic team might not be too far away. She said she already trained eight times a week.
“I think it’s always everyone’s dream to see how far they could go but making the Olympics would always be a dream,” she said.
“I think LA’s probably a bit of a stretch but I’d definitely like to try for Brisbane.”
Graham Jones has been a sport teacher at Bunbury Catholic College for more than 20 years and credits the success of this year’s Olympians to the kids themselves.
“All of them just have the same commitment. They’re workers, they do the work,” Mr Jones said.
He said he had high hopes the school would continue to produce hard-working athletes.
“We’ve been very lucky in having some real talent coming through.
“We sort of went a bit further in more recent times and started to develop an elite sporting program.
“Hopefully, that will provide some others with the incentives, knowledge and interest to pursue their own activities down the line and aspire and achieve.”
FULL STORY
The WA school making a habit of churning out Olympic stars (By Jacqueline Lynch and Kate Forrester, ABC News)
