Olympics and Paralympics / artistic swimming
Bristol duo win historic Olympic silver medal in artistic swimming
Bristol best friends Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe won a historic silver medal at the Olympics in Paris.
The former Clifton High School pupils, who train at Hengrove Leisure Centre, have become Team GB’s first-ever artistic swimming medallists.
Coming into the last day of competition, the duo were in fourth place but the highest free routine score of the competition in a routine inspired by a rising phoenix catapulted them into second.
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“It’s just the most incredible cherry on the top of over a decade’s worth of friendship and training together,” said Shortman, who studies international management and French at the University of Bath.
“We’ve seen each other at our very worst and our very best. It’s been a hard and very long journey but we’re so happy that we’re here and we get to do it together.”
Thorpe, a sports rehabilitation student at UWE Bristol, told Sky News that the experience “has not sunk in at all”.
On Sunday morning, the day after winning silver, she said: “It’s just been so surreal and from last night to this morning, it has been such a whirlwind so we’re on top of the world right now and really happy.”
Main photo: Sky News
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