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CHALTON

RACHEL HOLLINGTON

Now just turned 18, Rachel first went swimming aged 4 at the Biggleswade swimming pool with Moggerhanger Lower School and then joined the Swim School at Saxon Pool as well.  When she was 7 she went to Bedford High School and shortly after her eighth birthday she joined Biggleswade Swimming Club and swam twice a week with the Club. (Mum was delighted as this was cheaper than having lessons!)

Rachel comes from a sporting family – her father plays hockey, racket sports and cricket, her mother played tennis and her brother has represented the County at cricket and hockey and her sister at hockey and tennis.  Rachel started hockey at 3:  she was taken to watch her brother and sister training and was given a mini hockey stick which she used to knock a ball about at home.  She still plays hockey but found she was better at swimming, enjoying it more than other sports.

Having represented the school at every sport except athletics until the age of 13, she then decided to focus on swimming.  She had won her first medals - 3 silver - in the County championships aged 9.  By 10-11 she was training 4 times a week and continued competing till 2011.  At her peak she competed in the National Championships.

Then at 16 she “discovered water polo”.  She still swims but only for fitness for water polo, which has taken her to the finals again in the Regional competitions.  “I love it,” she says;  at hockey she was not fast enough on the pitch but her swimming training makes her fast at water polo and she has always loved ball games.  “It is the perfect solution”.

Rachel can boast having competed in 15 competitions in 1 year and she has over 100 awards to her credit.  She is a member of the Biggleswade Swimming Club and the Mid Beds Swimming Squad (which takes the “elite” of the local clubs).  She has also joined Iceni, a brand new water polo club set up in 2011 which brings people together from all over the Eastern Region.

Asked about the Olympics and Para Olympics, Rachel said they have made her want to play more, at everything.  She has learnt a lot about how you should play water polo by watching the Olympians (there aren’t many teams locally to watch).  The Games have inspired her to want to “get to the top” in her favourite game.  It is a high dream, she says, as she only has a short time in which to achieve it - most Olympics women players were between 21 and 25.

During her last year at school she completed her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award and went to St. James’s Palace in November 2012 to collect her award.  The Gold Award involved doing a 3 day hike in the Welsh mountains for which she had to carry her tent and supplies, she had to do a service(she coached swimming at Biggleswade for two years), she had to learn a new skill (she took up playing the guitar) and she had to do a residential course for a week (she went to Warwick University where she did a Headstart engineering course).

During this same year Rachel also took 4 A Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry, in which she got 4 A Grades and a place at Bristol University to read Mechanical Engineering.  All of this she managed to fit in around her water polo, swimming and hockey!

She has just started at Bristol University, which she chose as both the university and the city have water polo teams.  Her philosophy of life?  “Work hard or you’ll never get anywhere”.  Her life’s ambition? – to enjoy herself.