Olympic torch visits Bristo Square

There was much fanfare in Bristo Square last week as the Olympic torch made a fleeting visit to Edinburgh University.

Senior university officials and selected sportspeople received the torch at a reception in the Student Union, before giving students the chance in the afternoon to have their photograph taken with it.

Hundreds queued for the event which was part of a tour to publicise the Olympic Torch Relay that will take place next June, in the build-up to the Summer games in London.

Sam Trett, president of Edinburgh University Sports Union (EUSU), told The Journal: “The torch coming to the university highlights the key role that sports play at the University of Edinburgh.

“We cater for 24 of the 26 Olympic sporting disciplines and we have a long history of athletes coming to the University and going on to conquer the sporting world.”

This history of success dates back as far as the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Eric Liddell won 400m gold in the same year that he graduated from the university, and was later immortalised in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire.

More recent alumni include rower Katherine Grainger and cyclist Sir Chris Hoy. Grainger is a two-time Olympic silver medalist who took up rowing at university, whilst Hoy’s tally of four gold and one silver medal make him Scotland’s most successful ever Olympian.

Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, principal of the University of Edinburgh, has said: “Sport is extremely important to us as a university, and our involvement in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games is a key part of our identity.”

Current students competing for a place at next Summer’s games include dinghy sailor Charlotte Dobson, fencer Lisa McKenzie, swimmer Richard Shafers and rower Polly Swan. Many more are aiming at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

EUSU president Sam Trett was positive on the potential impact of the Olympic torch’s visit, saying: “Hopefully the torch coming to Edinburgh will help push the University’s sporting starts to win medals in the future.”