Lucy Hope - Life in the Fast Lane

A superb 2021 has seen University of Edinburgh student Lucy Hope pick up four gold medals at the European Championships and secure a place on Team GB for the Tokyo Olympics.

Competing for Great Britain at the LEN European Aquatics Championships (10-23 May 21), in Budapest, it was an event to remember for Accounting and Business Student Lucy, who is on course to graduate this summer. 

The first of her Gold Medal wins came in the 100m freestyle relay as part of the first ever British team to win this event at the European champions. Not only did the team set a new British Record (3:34.17), Lucy’s superb lead-off leg broke the Scottish 100m freestyle record (53.89). 

Further Gold medals followed for Lucy as she swam as part of the 4 x 200m freestyle finalist team and the 4 x 200m mixed and 4 x 100m mixed heat team. 

We wanted to get as close to winning as we could, but we didn’t expect to break the British Record. On a personal level it was fantastic to beat the Scottish 100m freestyle record and help the team secure the gold medal

Lucy tremendous performance at the European Championships has helped secure her place on TeamGB for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as part of the 4 x 100m relay team. 

We are all thrilled for Lucy, she’s worked so hard and richly deserves this opportunity. The whole of the team at Edinburgh will be cheering her on!

Lucy is no stranger to success on the world stage having represented Scotland at the 2014 Glasgow and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and securing a Gold Medal as part of the women’s 4x 200m freestyle relay team at the 2018 European Championships. During her time at Edinburgh Lucy has broken multiple Scottish records and currently holds the 100m freestyle short-course record (52.8 seconds) and 100m free long-course (53.89 seconds) record.  

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