The University’s newest sports facility, Mayflower Gym, has been officially opened by bursary student and international sailing star Lijia Xu, who won a sailing gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics.
Lijia is a previous World Champion, Asian Games Champion, Bronze medal winner at her home Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and World Sailor of the year in 2012.
Mayflower Gym, which is situated in the new Mayflower Halls student accommodation block in the heart of the city centre, is equipped with 60 state-of-the-art fitness stations and provides a wide range of programmed activities and services.
The gym represents a £2.5 million investment, not just for students but for the wider community as the gym is available to local people too.
Matt Plant, Head of Sport and Wellbeing at the University, says:
“Just taking our Highfield facilities, we often have 20,000 visits from users a week and while many of those are our students, we also offer our facilities to the local community. For example, 450 local children visit our campus every week to learn to swim as part of the Jubilee Swim Academy and approximately 400 sessions a year are organised by local schools themselves in our pool.”
The range of University sporting facilities is diverse both in terms of location and activities, from the Jubilee Sports centre on the main Highfield campus to the sports grounds at Wide Lane and the water sports centre in Swaythling, which offers the widest range of water-based sporting activity of any Russell Group university.
Over the last year, the University has also developed a partnership with Active Nation, who run sporting facilities across the city. This is allowing University students and staff free access to the Alpine Centre and athletics track at Southampton Sports Centre and to swim and use the gym at the Quays.
You can find out more about our sports and fitness facilities and activities on the University website.