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I can definitely imagine being on the podium, as an athlete then you’ve got to have certain goals that you’re aiming towards and obviously the ultimate goal for every athlete is to be on the podium at 2012 in London.

My name’s Hannah Laurence, I graduated from Manchester University with a Sociology Degree and I’m currently on the British Fencing Team. My preparations for the Olympics are going really well, we’ve not qualified yet because we’ve got a whole season in front of us, so we’ve got quite a lot of competitions to go to qualify. So yeah we’re training really hard up to those competitions. To participate in the Olympics in London is just going to be such a fantastic opportunity because it’s in Britain so there’s the anticipation that has been building up for years and years. It will be unlike any, participating in any other Olympic games, so I’m really looking forward to being there.

The work placement at O2 came about when I moved down to London after graduating and I wanted to do some work experience because, well as a supplement to my training because it’s important to keep it quite balanced. So the PA of my Performance Manager knew that I was looking for a work placement and so she sent through the application form from the Institute of Sport and told me about the scheme. I applied and then I found out a few weeks later that I was on the scheme, so I was really pleased. The more I found out about it the more excited I was and it’s been a fantastic opportunity for me.

The rest of my team at O2 know that I’m training for the Olympics and they’re all really excited about it. If I meet somebody then they’re always really interested and they ask me about my training regime and everything. And the team that I sit with in Bury, which is where I’m based, they’re always asking me about nutrition and fitness and they’re really encouraging and supportive.

I’m with the Policy Team at the moment within HR so we’re doing a big refresh of all the O2 policies and I’ve been given some of the smaller family policies to refresh. So I’m bringing in research within HR, from outside of HR and seeing how best to refresh the policies.

OK, a typical day when I’m at work and training would be to come to work at 9 and work till about 1 or 2 and then go to my strength and conditioning at 3. So that’s weight lifting or interval training to do, to make me more powerful for fencing. That might last about two hours, go home and have a bit of a rest, bit of food and then go training at 7.30 till 10, so fencing training.

I can definitely imagine being on the podium, as an athlete you’ve got to have certain goals that you’re aiming towards and obviously the ultimate goal for every athlete is to be on the podium at 2012 in London.