When you think of Olympic success, some of the usual suspects include South African swimmers, Kenyan runners, or Indian hockey players.
But another name to add to that list is far closer to home — Crompton House School in Shaw, Oldham.
That’s because it has seen double gold success at Tokyo 2020 in former pupils, meaning that its alumni have been on the top step of the podium more than those three sporting nations - and many others beside.
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On Tuesday (August 3), Stuart Bithell — who left in 2002 — took home the gold for Team GB in the Men’s Skiff 49er sailing race.
Two days later, Matt Walls stood on the top step of the podium in the Men’s omnium cycling event.
The school’s two golds would put it 34th in the overall medal table (as of August 5) — ahead of South Africa, Kenya, and Romania.
The school would also be ahead of Mexico, Ukraine, Austria, Portugal, and the second largest country in the world by population, India.
Walls’ success in the velodrome is even more remarkable, given he contracted Covid-19 in March.
Despite being an outsider for the win, the 23-year-old became the first Brit to win a cycling gold medal at this year’s Olympics.
“Thank you to all my family and friends, I wouldn’t be here without them,” he told the BBC.
“Especially my parents when I was younger growing up, they travelled around the country with me and there’s no chance I’d be here without them.”
There was also hometown pride for Bithell, originally from Rochdale.
His mum, Viv, 68, told the PA news agency: “It’s been really exciting and we are absolutely delighted with what’s happened.
“We’ve spoken to him on Facetime and he’s absolutely beaming and can’t believe it, he said himself it’s not sunk in yet, so there’s going to be some celebrations going in the next week or so.”
