My name is Guin Batten. It's a real honour and privilege to be invited into the Hall of Fame.
After I left Leeds Beckett, I was an exercise physiologist with the British Olympic Medical Team. I went on to take up rowing, went to two Olympic Games, won a silver medal in Sydney, worked for England in their national governing bodies team for a year, and then spent 13 years working at the Youth Sport Trust. I then went to be head of development at Paddle UK, and I now work for Volleyball England. I also co-designed a new discipline for world rowing called beach sprint rowing, and it's debuting in Los Angeles in 2028.
My memorabilia is a rowing oar. It's the bit of how you apply that power through the water. So it's a really special bit of kit. That is from 2000, so in 100 years' time, people will look at that and go, "Oh, that's quite old."
The biggest lesson my career has taught me is no doesn't mean no. No means go and find another way. When I found this sport, rowing, I went to my first-ever national trials, and I came in the top six, and they selected six people to the world championships, but my name wasn't on the list. And the chief coach said to me, "Guin, you're too small. You will never be an international rower." And so that door closed for me. My only option then was to go into the single scull. I could have given up rowing. I could have just rowed recreationally. But actually, what I did was try to find a different way, and it was exactly 12 months to the very day of that conversation, I was ranked eighth in the world in the single scull.
Three things that I've taken away from when I was at Leeds Beckett was innovating, questioning, and if it is to be, it's up to me. You, as an athlete, have to make the difference. That ability to take accountability and responsibility of what you put in. I'm not who I am today without all the people I studied with or the people that taught me, and so I'm really proud to have been part of Leeds Beckett. It transformed my life and put me on the path to where I am now.
1991
2026
