On Thursday 15 June Oxford University celebrated their Olympic talent and invited SWC to provide the wines for the evening.

The first part of the evening was a reception for 160 people, including 7 of their Rio Olympians and 16 former Olympians including Sir Roger Bannister and David Hemery, in the Blackwell Hall of the Weston Library.  In all, 283 Oxford graduates have taken part in the Olympics over the years, winning 167 medals – 84 of which were gold.

A sporting panel discussion was chaired by Dr David Hemery, an alumnus of St Catherine’s College and a past Olympic and Commonwealth champion in the 400 metre hurdles.  The panel featured Grace Clough, a current Master’s student in Sociology at Kellogg College and a 2016 Paralympic gold medallist in rowing; and Dan Fox, who studied a BA and PGCE at St Edmund Hall and represented Team GB in hockey in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Other panelists included Peter Reed, who studied Engineering Science at Oriel College and won Olympic gold medals in the rowing four and eight; and Sophia Saller, a current student in Mathematics who was world under-23 triathlon champion in 2014.

The second part was a dinner for 60 people in the Divinity School, hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson.

The event was also attended by other Olympians, past and present, including Barbara Slater, Allan Jay, Zoe de Toledo, Paul Bennett, Olivier Siegelaar, Dr Zoe Lee, Michael Ralph, Pauline Janson, Annabel Eyres, Dr Nick Howarth, Justin Frishberg, Colin Smith, Dr Paul Mattick, Jonny Searle, Richard Fishlock, John Chester, Graham Cooper and Alexander Lindsay.