Matthew Debenham
Swimming
Matthew Debenham is a former British national swimmer who is continuing his studies at the University of Northampton. He explained his reasonings why he choose to study Sport Rehabilitation at the University:
“When I was looking at my course, from a sporting perspective there are a lot of opportunities in Northampton.”
“Northampton is a similar town to where I’m from, If I went to a big city I would find it too daunting,” he said.
Debenham found out about the Elite Athlete Scholarship Programme on the University Open Day:
“I’ve never had this sort of training outside of the pool, helping me improve my strength, power, and range of movements.”
He was influenced to start swimming because of his brother:
“My older brother when he was younger had an operation on his leg, so they told him to start swimming because that’s the best way to strengthen it and I just got into it from there, doing swimming lessons.”
Since Matthew became a national swimmer in 2018, he has had a love-hate relationship with the sport:
“I’ve had loads of up and downs where I wanted to quit and since lockdown, I’ve been training on and off.”
But since Debenham has joined the University, he is now a part of the Swimming Society and they had their first BUCS competition last November.
However, outside of the University team, he still has other goals:
“I want to try and get into the Regionals in May and from there, I want to qualify for Nationals next year.”
