GEORGE ROBINSON
'I was a pupil at the Allertonshire between 2006 and 2009, then Northallerton School and Sixth Form College for my GCSE’s and A Level’s (Physical Education, Art and Biology) until 2011 when I started university. My P.E. teacher at school had a huge influence on my ambition to fulfil my passion for sport and really began the desire to have a career at the top level.
Following my A level’s, I went on to study Sports Science for Performance Coaching at Sheffield Hallam University. While studying I also founded the university Triathlon Club in 2012 and volunteered as Head Coach for 2 years. During this time, I gained a Level 2 coaching qualification and was also shortlisted as university Coach of the Year for the two consecutive years. I graduated in 2014 with a 1st class honours degree as well as an academic award presented by Professor Robert Winston.
The following year, I undertook my postgraduate degree in MSc Sport and Exercise Nutrition at Loughborough University. While studying I also completed a year-long internship at the English Institute of Sport. Here I had the opportunity to experience working alongside some incredible athletes from a range of sports leading up to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Over the next two years I worked as a consultant Performance Nutritionist for several universities, an England Premiership Football club as well as an Olympic team. Then one day a call came out of the blue from a colleague asking if I could get on a flight to Flagstaff, USA for a training camp with the British Athletics team. I said yes and within a couple of weeks I found myself in Mo Farah’s house cooking him and 16 other athlete’s their evening meal. This three-week training camp was the start of a four year journey completing a PhD at Loughborough University with British Athletics, two more training camps in Europe and Australia as well as being part of the English Institute of Sport Nutrition team supporting athletes leading to the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Now, in 2021 I am working on the Olympic programme at British Cycling as a Nutritionist supporting track and road cyclists. Currently, we are preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Games which have been delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally, I would like to end by saying that many of the opportunities and amazing experiences that I’ve had in my career have so far been through volunteering my time and skills to individuals and organisations. Therefore, I would strongly encourage anyone who has a career path in mind to do the same and get involved with local projects, enterprises or start something themselves which will help get them to where they want to be just like my P.E. teacher at Northallerton School and Sixth Form College told me.'
George Robinson