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Bucks has been home to its fair share of famous faces but did you know the county is also the breeding ground from some of the most iconic sporting stars in Great Britain?
From professional footballers to equestrian stars and olympians, a lot of sporting talent hails from the region.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the greatest sporting champions from the county:
Sophie Christiansen – Equestrian
(PA)
Sophie Christiansen, CBE is an equestrian who has competed in four successive Paralympic Games.
In 2008 she won two gold medals and a silver at the Beijing Paralympics whilst studying for a master’s degree in mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London.
In 2012 and 2016 she gained three gold medals at the Paralympics.
She currently works as a software developer at investment bank, Goldman Sachs, and uses her platform to be a disability campaigner.
In honour of her achievements at the London 2012 Games, the Royal Mail painted a postbox gold for each of her gold medals in her original hometown of Sunningdale, on the campus of her University and in her hometown at the time of Maidenhead.
Her horse Janeiro 6 also got a postbox painted gold in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, near where she trained at South Bucks RDA.
The paralympic hero also became the first woman inducted into the Bucks and Milton Keynes Sporting Hall of Fame at a glittering awards night in 2018.
Greg Rutherford – Athlete
(David Davies/PA)
Sporting icon Greg Rutherford, MBE is a retired track and field athlete who specialised in long jump.
He represented Great Britain at the Olympics, World and European Championships, and England at the Commonwealth Games.
He was also Masterchef Celebrity champion for 2019.
Rutherford won the long jump gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2014 and 2016 European Athletics Championships and 2015 World Athletics Championships, and topped the 2015 IAAF Diamond League rankings in the event.
From September 2015 to June 2016, Rutherford held every available elite outdoor title; national, continental, World, Olympic, Diamond League and Commonwealth.
Rutherford is the current British record holder, both outdoors and indoors, for long jump with his personal bests of 8.51 m (outdoors) and 8.26 m (indoors).
Andrew Hodge
Peter Spurrier/ Intersport Images
Another olympic athlete to hail from Bucks is Sir Andrew Triggs Hodge OBE the retired British rower and triple Olympic Gold Medallist and quadruple World Champion.
Originally from Halton in Bucks he moved to Yorkshire for school and later studied Environmental Science at the Stoke cmapus of Staffordshire University where he took up the sport of rowing with the Boat Club.
Dele Alli – Footballer
(Nick Potts/PA)
Born and raised in Milton Keynes, Dele Alli plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the England national team.
He joined the youth system at Milton Keynes Dons aged 11 and broke into the first team five years later, during the 2012–13 season.
Over the next two-and-a-half years he made 88 official appearances for the team, scoring 24 goals.
He signed for Tottenham Hotspur in February 2015 for an initial fee of £5 million, being loaned back to the Dons for the remainder of the season. In each of his first two campaigns at White Hart Lane, Alli was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year and made the PFA Team of the Year.
Alli played for the England U17, U18 and U19 teams, before making his senior debut in 2015. He was selected for UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, helping England to the semi-finals.
Clare Griffiths – Basketball player
Clare Griffiths is a 1.5 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games.
Born in High Wycombe she played county hockey, and represented her school in the National Indoor Championships. She also rode horses, representing southern England at the Mounted Games in 1996 and 1997.
After falling from a horse in 1997 and breaking her back, she was introduced to wheelchair basketball during rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
A year later, she made her international debut as a 1.5 point player for Team Great Britain at the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Sydney, Australia.
Tyrrell Hatton – Golfer
(Adam Davy/PA)
Professional golfer Tyrrell Hatton plays on the European Tour and the PGA Tour.
Born in Marlow, Hatton has won five times on the European Tour including three Rolex Series events, the 2017 Italian Open, the 2019 Turkish Airlines Open and the 2020 BMW PGA Championship.
He also won the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour. Hatton played in the winning 2018 Ryder Cup team.
Have you seen any of our sporting champions live? Let us know in the comments.
