Meet a member – Rachel

Rachel is Spencer’s very own qualified stunt performer. Rachel’s other job is a tree surgeon, but she decided she wanted to train to be a stunt performer when she returned to the UK from Australia in 2012. She joined Spencer in January 2016 as part of her training to go on the Stunt register – swimming was one of six sports she needed to qualify in, and the swim test is a tough one. Swimming runs in Rachel’s family – her grandfather who taught her to swim had been a great water polo player in his day and her mother is an active swimmer – but, although she swam regularly as a child, she did not swim competitively. Rachel therefore decided to join a swim club to help with her strokes and fitness for the test, which she passed in December 2016. After passing the horse riding test, she qualified as a stunt performer in March 2017. Her stunt training has covered a range of other sports, include trampolining and rock climbing and she is also a certified PADI SCUBA divemaster and has competed in seven fights as an amateur boxer. Despite all her other interests, Rachel does seem to have caught the swimming bug and is still training with us regularly. She is also now competing for the club. She met her boyfriend Ollie through Spencer and started going to watch him compete at competitions. Before she knew it, she was persuaded to give it a go herself, rather than just sitting on the benches. She really enjoys the buzz of competing, and the fact that it gives a bit more focus to training sessions with the club. After 4 or 5 meets, she has settled on the sprint events, particularly 50m Breastroke and 50m free, and is always up for a relay too. She is proud of her bronze in the 50m breaststroke at the British Swimming Championships in Aberdeen in June.

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