Celebrating our Sport Scholars

The inaugural event

On Friday 9th October 2026, UoM Sport held our first ever UoM Sport Scholarship Awards. The event recognised the achievements and inspirational contributions that our talented dual-career athletes make to our university community.

This event provided an opportunity to celebrate the outstanding commitment, resilience and success demonstrated by our scholars, both within their sport and academic studies.

Sport Scholars, academic colleagues, partners and supporters of the sport scholarship programme were invited to a lunch and networking event in the Alliance Manchester Business School Penthouse.

Opening remarks

The event opened with an address from Head of Sport and Physical Activity, James Marenghi, who touched on the proud history of the scholarship programme.

University President and Vice-Chancellor, Duncan Ivison, joined the event via an inspirational video message for attendees, encouraging students to make the most of the support networks available to them during their time at Manchester. Duncan also encouraged academic colleagues to work flexibly with scholars, providing them with support when they need it most.

Dr. Miri Firth (Senior Lecturer – Education, Leadership & Management) gave an engaging speech highlighting scholar achievements and the impact and importance scholars have as role models to the wider community.

The Scholars

In this years’ cohort, we have 35 sport scholars across 18 different sports. Amongst the incredibly talented group are European Champions, Commonwealth Games medallists and a plethora of international and age-group international representations.

14 new scholars have joined the programme in 2026-27, joining 21 returning scholars.

The athletes and sports are made up of six athletics, five swimming, four rugby union, three gymnastics, two fencing, two climbing, two korfball, two lacrosse, two freestyle ski, two rowing, boxing, canoe polo, karate, netball and water polo.

UoM Sport - Scholarship Awards. Rowena Birch poses with her Hall of Fame display

Alumni Connections

Each scholar was presented with an award from our first ever UoM Sport Hall of Fame inductee, Rowena Birch. Rowena is a XXI (21) Club member and competed for Team GB at the 1996 Olympic Games. Rowena has recently joined UoM Sport this year as UoM Judo Club Coach.

We were thrilled to be joined by several other members of the University XXI Club at the event. Current President, David Richardson, spoke warmly of the clubs’ history and the importance of connection with current and past scholars.

Read more about the University of Manchester Sport Scholarship and the XXI Club here.

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