St Mary’s Alumna Wins Bronze Paralympic Tandem Cycling Medal

St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) alumna Corrine Hall has won a Bronze medal at the Paris Paralympic Games in the Women’s B 3000m Individual Pursuit as the tandem pilot rider for Lora Fachie.

The ParalympicsGB pair took the Bronze medal in a time 3:20.488, beating fellow GB teammates Lizzi Jordan and Danni Khan by almost five seconds.

Corrine and Lora previously won the Gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Games in the same event, where they also broke the previous world record.

Speaking ahead of the Paris Games Corrine said, “The Paralympics is the biggest event in the world for us on the tandem, so going into my first Games at Rio was a crazy feeling. Now, I'm older and more experienced but you still get the same feelings and excitement. Lora and I have ridden together now for 11 years, so I think everything just comes a little bit more naturally to us.”

This is the pair’s third Paralympic Games and fifth Paralympic medal, having already won two Gold medals, a Silver, and a Bronze in para-cycling events at the Rio and Tokyo Games.

Alongside the Women’s B 3000m Individual Pursuit, Corrine and Lora still have the Women’s B Individual Time Trial and Women’s B Road Race to come. The pair came fourth in the Women’s B 1000m Time Trial earlier last week.

St Mary’s has a history of success at recent Olympic and Paralympic Games, with SMU athletes having already won three medals at the Paris Olympic Games. Alumna Beth Potter took home two Bronze medals in the Women’s Triathlon and Mixed Triathlon Relay, while alumnus Aaron Grandidier won Gold with France in the Men’s Rugby Sevens.

Athletes, alumni, and students from SMU have won a Gold medal at every Games since Beijing 2008. In total the University has seen 51 athletes take part in the last four Olympic and Paralympic Games, with some representing multiple events, winning 17 medals for their nations prior to Paris 2024.