Johnian Winter Olympians
As the Sochi Winter Olympics enter their second week, we look back at our Johnian alumni who represented Great Britain on the slopes and ice at previous Winter Games:
Mark Hatton
(matric. 1995)
Born in 1973, Mark Hatton is our most recent Winter Olympian. He studied for a PGCE at St John’s in 1995, by which time he was already making a name for himself as a luge athlete. Mark began luging at the age of 21 and soon began competing at World Cup level before representing Great Britain in not one, but two Winter Olympics: Salt Lake City, 2002 and Torino 2006.
In 2010 he continued his Olympic career by managing the GB team at the Vancouver Games, coaching them to a very creditable 16th place. Mark is one of the top ranked luge athletes in the wold and is rated as one of Britain’s fastest ever Olympians, regularly reaching speeds of up to 87 mph on his luge runs.
Rollo Brandt
(matric. 1955)
Rollo Brandt was educated at Oundle School and came to St John’s in 1955. During his time as a student, Rollo was very involved in College sports, leading the Rugby Team to several decisive victories against other Colleges including Selwyn, Christ’s and Emmanuel. He is pictured here in his Olympic kit and blazer.
Rollo was a member of the GB Bobsleigh
team in the Winter Olympics at Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956, finishing in an impressive 12th place in the international competition.
Norman Barclay
(matric. 1943)
Born in Glasgow in 1925, Norman Barclay was truly a man of adventure. Nicknamed the ‘godfather of extreme’ by the media, Norman was a daredevil who lived for speed. Equally at home water-skiing across the Irish Sea, motor racing in Formula 2, power boating around the British coast
and driving in a road marathon from London to Sydney, Norman frequently risked life and limb in the name of extreme sport.
When he wasn’t speeding downhill or behind the wheel of a racing vehicle, Norman served as a Captain in the Royal Engineers for two years, posted to Malaya and Japan. Later, he built a successful business portfolio in fields as diverse as whisky and plastics.
Norman was a member of the British Bobsleigh team at two Winter Olympics, at Innsbruck 1964 and Grenoble 1968. He also became the President of the British Bobsleigh Association in the early 1990s. Norman spent his final years hunting for treasure on Caribbean shipwrecks and flying hot air balloons.
William Speechley
(matric. 1927)
William Speechley was born in Manitoba, Canada to British parents and studied Classics at St John’s between 1927 and 1930. While he was still a student, William became a member of the British Ice Hockey team in the 1928 Winter Olympics at St Moritz. The team played a very close Group A match against France, which led to them progressing to the next round in the Games. The British team finished with a very respectable fourth place overall. The dramatic encounter against the French is pictured here,
In later life, William returned to Canada to study at the University of Winnipeg, serve as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Infantry Corps during WWII, and become a schoolteacher.