The Notts Olympians Representing Team GB at Tokyo 2020

Friday 23 July 2021
reading time: min, words

With the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo now in full flow, and the Paralympic Games soon to follow, we take a look at some of the Notts athletes aiming to add to Team GB’s medal count this summer...

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Emily Campbell

Sport: Weightlifting
Age: 27
Town: Nottingham

Campbell caught the attention of the weightlifting world with a stellar performance at the 2021 European Weightlifting Championships, sealing her place as a member of Team GB at the Tokyo games in the process. 2021 will mark the 27-year-old’s Olympic debut, and the Notts-born weightlifter is quietly tipped to match her European gold (where she lifted a combined 276kg) in the +87kg category in Japan. With a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games already under her belt – as well as a new national record – expectations for Campbell are very high. 

@​​emilyjade_gb

Adam Dixon

Sport: Men’s Hockey
Age: 34
Town: Newark-on-Trent

As one of the finest players of his generation, Adam Dixon is hoping to lead Team GB’s Men’s Hockey to their first Olympic medal since the Seoul games in 1988. The defender, who plays his club hockey for Beeston, is one of four players returning from Rio, as well as one of the two players that won European gold for England in 2009. Having recently married, had a baby, moved house and been named team captain, an Olympic medal will help Dixon cap off an eventful couple of years.

@adamdxn

Sophie Hahn MBE

Sport: Athletics
Age: 24
Town: Nottingham

She’s bagged numerous gold medals at the Paralympics (100m at Rio 2016), World Championships (100m in 2013, 2015, 2017, 4 x 100m relay in 2015 and 200m in 2017) European Championships (100m in 2016 and 2018, 4 x 100m relay in 2016 and 2018 and 200m in 2018) and Commonwealth Games (100m in 2018), making her the first female track and field athlete to hold gold medals in the same event at all four games. Another medal in Tokyo would give the Loughborough-based athlete a trophy cabinet to rival anyone’s.

@sophiehahnt38

Charlotte Henshaw

Sport: Athletics
Age: 34
Town: Mansfield

Having competed at no less than three Paralympics as a swimmer – where she bagged a silver medal at London 2012 followed by a bronze at Rio 2016 – Charlotte Henshaw is set to represent Team GB for a fourth time as part of the 2021 Paracanoe squad. Having gone through the entire 2019 season being internationally undefeated in the KL2 200m event (winning Gold medals at the European Championships, ICF World Cup and ICF World Championships in the process), Henshaw is hotly tipped to bag her first Olympic gold in Tokyo. 

@chenshawgb

Tin-Tin Ho

Sport: Table Tennis
Age: 22
Town: Paddington

Hailing from London, but currently studying medicine at the University of Nottingham, Ho is the first female table tennis player from Great Britain to qualify for an Olympics since the Atlanta games in 1996. Something of a table tennis prodigy, Ho won the national women’s singles title aged just seventeen, and a brace of Commonwealth silver medals with her GB teammate Liam Pitchford in the mixed doubles. She’s currently ranked No. 93 in the world and, despite being just 22, is backed to make an impact at the 2021 games. 

@tintin.ho

Shona McCallin MBE

Sport: Women’s Hockey
Age: 29
Town: Newark-on-Trent

With her status as a legend of the game already safe thanks to a gold medal at the 2016 games in Rio, as well as a Commonwealth gold in the 2015 games, McCallin will look to further secure her legacy with more success this year. Having progressed through the Nottinghamshire country and national ranks, including captaining the U21 squad at the Junior World Cup, McCallin has seen and done it all before, and her experience will prove vital to Team GB’s women’s team as they hope to repeat their Rio glory in Tokyo.

@shonamccallin24

Jess Piasecki

Sport: Athletics
Age: 31
Town: Stockport

Born and raised in the North West, Dr Jess Piasecki is a lecturer in Exercise Physiology at Nottingham Trent University. Having endured a particularly difficult path to Tokyo – injuries disrupted her qualification for the 2016 games in Rio, and forced her to miss the 2015 Frankfurt and 2016 London Marathons respectively – Piasecki was diagnosed with compression fractures in seven places in her spine, causing her to lose 4cm in height.  Her victory in the Florence Marathon in 2019, with a time of 2:25:28, saw her qualify for Team GB’s Tokyo crew.

@jess_piasecki_

Molly Renshaw

Sport: Swimming
Age: 25
Town: Mansfield

Having set a new British record when she qualified for the 200m breaststroke final at the Rio 2016 games (where she finished sixth), Mansfield-born Renshaw repeated the feat by smashing the national record again at the 2021 British Swimming Olympic trials to qualify for Tokyo. With 200m breaststroke bronze and 4x100m medley silver medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, as well as 2016 European Championship gold medal in the 4x100m medley, under her belt, Renshaw will have her eyes firmly fixed on standing on the podium for Team GB in 2021. 

@molrenshaw

Emma Wilson

Sport: Sailing
Age: 22
Town: Nottingham

Wilson won a world title at twelve, a gold at the U15 Techno 293 World Championships and a hat trick of Youth Worlds golds in 2014, 2016 and 2017. It’s little surprise that she has enjoyed such remarkable success at youth level - as the daughter of two-time Olympian Penny Wilson, it’s clear that sailing skill is a family thing. Citing the guidance and advice of her mum as a major influence, Emma Wilson is ready to carve out her own piece of Olympic history when she represents Team GB in Tokyo. 

@emmawilson_gbr7

Richard Whitehead MBE

A 200m gold in London. A 100m silver and another 200m gold in Rio. It’s fair to say that Richard Whitehead MBE is a true Paralympic legend. Having set world records for athletes with double amputations in both the full and half marathon, he was refused permission to compete against upper-body amputees at London 2012, so turned his hand to sprinting with incredible success. With his third Olympics in Tokyo beckoning, it’s little surprise that the 44-year-old Notts runner is considered one of the city’s greatest ever athletes. 

@richard_whitehead_mbe

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