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‘To be recognised in this way is really special’
Four-time world Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington’s radiant smile lit up the Wills Memorial Building on Wednesday as she received an honorary degree from the University of Bristol.
Since moving to Bristol three years ago, Wellington has been heavily involved in community projects and charity work across the city.
“I feel so honoured to have been bestowed this degree, simply because it’s from a university in the city that we’ve made our home, and I’ve tried to involve myself in the city and the community as much as I possibly can since we moved here. To be recognised in this way is really, really special.”
is needed now More than ever
Wellington, 39, says that she has big plans for her adopted city and that her work has only just begun.
“I want to use whatever platform I have to drive forward participation in physical activity, especially within marginalised groups”, she explains “I work for parkrun and we’ve got an increased focus now on health and well-being through physical activity and what I want to do is to entrench that within Bristol.
“It’s such a fantastic city, it’s such a vibrant, lived-in, active city and there are pockets that are incredibly active, that are incredibly sporty, but there are also areas for whom physical activity is not the norm, and it’s trying to overcome those barriers to participation that really drives me.”
In what is set to be another big year for Wellington, she has decided to celebrate in a way only athletes would choose to do: by running the London Marathon.
Having run it in 2002 she felt it was time to challenge herself once more. “15 years later, I’m turning 40 this Saturday and having had a daughter it just seemed like quite a big milestone.”
Not only this, but having already been awarded an MBE, this week it was announced she would also be receiving an OBE for services rendered to the community.
Wellington will be speaking at the launch of the Find It Film Festival at the Arnolfini on March 10; a series of films hoping to inspire young women to get involved in sport and physical activity and to encourage those already in the sporting industry.
Read more: My Bristol favourites: Chrissie Wellington