![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2019\/09\/gymnast_and_cyclist-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNot everyone who will wear MMU colours in sports arenas round the world over the next year started out training for that sport.<\/p>\n
Georgia Holt, 19, originally wanted to compete in the skeleton, a downhill snow speed event similar to the luge or bobsleigh. She went to a regional trials but after a fitness assessment on a bike, she was told she had very strong leg muscles and might excel as a cyclist.<\/p>\n
As a result, she transferred to MMU as a Sports Scholar and is fitting her second year of studies for a Bio Medical Science degree in between trials for the GB team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel really lucky,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe standard of care at MMU, both mentally and physically, is great. My next goal is the BUCS championships at the end of November so I\u2019m focussing on that. I would love to make the GB sprint cycle team.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bradley Nuttall, 19, is one of the most promising crop of gymnasts in the UK, ranking fourth in the UK behind five-time Olympic medallist Max Whitlock.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s distinguished company for a boy from Oldham who went to the town\u2019s Bluecoat School. He\u2019s been a gymnast since he was five and trains between three to four hours a week, five days-a-week.<\/p>\n
Among his sporting heroes is the current GB number one, Max Whitlock, with whom he shares a passion for the pommel horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cMMU helps me with the finance, the training, the conditioning and keeps me in top form,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great set-up. What\u2019s good about the Scholar programme is that it makes you realise how good you are.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you doubt yourself, but I look at that and it reassures me and pushes me on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another home grown hopeful is 21-year-old Katie Matts from Worsley, a swimmer specialising in the 200 metre breaststroke. She\u2019s been swimming since the age of seven, starting with the City of Salford team and then transferring to Stockport Metros.<\/p>\n
In 2017 Katie won two golds at the British National Championships, including the 200m breaststroke \u2013 her third in as many years.<\/p>\n
She fits her studies for a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science around the nine swim sessions a week she needs for peak fitness, plus three gym sessions, Pilates, cardio and gym sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMMU gave me the opportunity to be able to train and study, which wouldn\u2019t compromise my ability to be an elite athlete,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn April I\u2019m working towards Olympic trials for the GB squad. It\u2019s awesome to think what the future might hold. Days like this \u2013 the Sports Scholars Welcome \u2013 make me realise how lucky I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2019\/09\/swimmer_by_her_own_pic-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The latest additions to the ranks of MMU basketball players are formidable athletes: Portuguese international Sara Djassi, a sports business management masters student who will join forces with classmate and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Dominique Allen.<\/p>\n
Both 30, they bring vast experience to the Manchester Mystics team and MMU basketball, where they will play alongside fourth year scholar Grace Simmons and the towering figure of Australian Samantha Roscoe.<\/p>\n
Why did they choose MMU? Sara\u2019s choice was simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI compared MMU with other universities and MMU allowed me to keep all my options open: to play, to study and eventually to coach. I can do it all here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Spanish-born Grace, 22, has been a fixture in the MMU basketball team as they have progressed from the lowest league to the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great. I\u2019ve really enjoyed my time as a scholar. We\u2019re really performed in that time, bonded as players and now we\u2019re reaping the rewards,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Another phenomenal MMU success story is that of photographer Molly Darlington, who learned her craft in the rain pitchside, both at the Platt Lane MMU sports centre and by taking action shots for her local club, Northwich Victoria.<\/p>\n
She is both determined and very talented, and graduated from an MMU photography course to covering Premier League and Champions League matches, to her current job with Reuters and a place on the plane to cover the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took the opportunities,\u201d she says. \u201cAt MMU there are so many of them. It\u2019s been unbelievable but I\u2019m very excited about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not everyone who will wear MMU colours in sports arenas round the world over the next year started out training for that sport. Georgia Holt,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1236,"featured_media":3758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4974,1],"tags":[114,156,1056],"class_list":["post-3761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","category-uncategorised","tag-man-met","tag-olympics","tag-sport-scholars"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n