Louis the latest to fly Peterborough flag at the greatest sporting spectacle on earth
Updated, 18 August 2008:
Louis Smith yesterday (August 17) made Olympic history in Beijing. The 19 year-old from Eye won a bronze medal in the pommel horse – Team GB's first gymnastics medal in 80 years and the first for a British individual in a century.
There have been 14 Olympians from the Peterborough area, but Louis Smith is the only gymnast.
There have been four hockey players, three cyclists, two track and field athletes, one wind surfer, one skeet shooter, one water polo player, one swimmer and an archer.
They have accumulated three gold medals, two silver medals and five bronze medals between them.
Find out more about our local Olympians:
- Louis Smith: Gymnastics, Beijing 2008
- Paul Barber: Hockey, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988
- Kirsty Bowden: Hockey, Sydney 2000
- Brian Brinkley: Swimming, Munich 1972 & Montreal 1976
- Geoff Capes: Athletics (shot putt), Munich 1972, Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980
- Dennis Savory: Archery, Moscow, 1980
- Colin Dale: Hockey, Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960
- Nick Dempsey: Windsurfing, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004
- Gary Dighton: Cycling, Barcelona, 1992
- Drew Harvey: Skeet shooting, Sydney, 2000
- William Peacock: Water Polo, Antwerp, 1920
- John Peake: Hockey, London, 1948
- Arthur Robertson: Athletics (five miles, steeplechase, three mile team race), London, 1908
- DC 'Dabs' Robertson: Cycling, London, 1908
- Bryan Steel: Cycling, Sydney, 2000
Other Olympians with local connections:
- Current Peterborough Town Hockey Club coach Kalbir Takher represented Great Britain in Atlanta 1996.
- Marathon runner Ian Thompson competed in Moscow before joining Bourne Running Club.
- Charles Sexton took part in the shooting in Mexico 1968 before moving to Walpole St Andrew
- Gary Armstrong who was living in Manchester when he ran in the 400m in Munich 1972 and later managed a building society in Market Deeping.
- Tony Slaney was coach to the British tae kwon do team when it was a demonstration sport in 2000.
- John French who still cycles competitively for Peterborough Cycling Club took part in the speed skating event for Great Britain in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
Official site of the Beijing Olympics 2008 - en.beijing2008.cn, The Evening Telegraph is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The full article contains 383 words and appears in Peterborough ET newspaper.
