Women’s Sport Week – A Profile on Robyn Love

On day 2 of our Women’s Sport Week we are very pleased to recognise one of our former elected students, Robyn Love.

Robyn Love was born in Ayr, Scotland, on 28 August 1990.  She was born with arthrogryposis, a rare condition in which the muscles are shortened, due to the wrapping of the umbilical cord around her legs.  As a result, her right leg is shorter than her left, and she is missing muscles in both legs. In 2009, she entered Edinburgh Napier University, where she studied biomedical sciences and served as Napier University’s Elected Student for Sport, working with SSS.  One of the first things she did was find sports organisations, and she started playing basketball.

Ironically, it was embracing her disability that set Love on the path to becoming an elite athlete. A friend suggested she try wheelchair basketball. Love attended a “come and try” day run by the Lothian Phoenix club in November 2013, and met Tina Gordon from sportscotland who became her coach. Love played her first wheelchair basketball game in January 2014, shooting 16 points in a winning game. She went on to win the Scottish Cup with Lothian Phoenix and the Scottish Universities Cup with Edinburgh Napier University. In October 2014, she attended a national team training camp, and in 2015 she relocated to the University of Worcester, where the national team is based. She made her international début with the national team at the Osaka Cup in Japan in February 2015, winning silver. This was followed by bronze at the European Championships in September 2015, securing a place for the British team at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In May 2016, she was selected as part of the side for Rio. The British team produced its best ever performance at the Paralympics, making it all the way to the semi-finals, but lost to the semi-final to the United States, and then the bronze medal match to the Netherlands.

We are very proud to have highlighted Robyn as one of our Women in Sport this week.  She has been a shining example of hard work and achievement not only on the court but also behind the scenes.  Whilst she was attending Edinburgh’s Napier University she was elected Vice President of Sport and Societies and helped to shape the sporting offer at the University.

Please check back with us everyday this week to see us feature a variety of amazing women in sport!  Get involved on twitter with the hashtag #WSW16