Alice, 20, has dedicated much of her life to ice dance and synchronised skating, having started performing as a young girl. She represented her hometown of Bradford for nine years, before joining Nottingham Synchronised Skating Academy in 2023. She also features for Great Britain on the international stage — including at the 2024 World Championships where she helped Team GB achieve their highest ever finish.

For the last three years, Alice has balanced her sporting commitments with her studies at Leeds Trinity University. While completing the Physical Education and Sports Coaching degree, Alice’s demanding training schedule included 4:00am wake-up calls, airport study sessions and a limited social life in order to attend training sessions and complete coursework. At one stage, with the support of her tutors, she was working on five assignments while preparing for four different competitions.

Despite the challenging workload, Alice has consistently achieved high scores both academically and for her skating performances. This resulted in her twice receiving the Faculty Dean’s Award in recognition of her high-quality University work and being shortlisted for ‘Senior Amateur Sportswoman’ at the Bradford Sports Awards in May this year.

Today, her determination is rewarded further as she graduates with first-class honours.

Alice said: “Completing my degree has been one of the hardest, but most rewarding, things I’ve had to face, so I’m very proud of the results I have achieved and of the person I have become as a result of my University experience. There were many occasions where I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well or get a certain grade, causing lots of feelings of self-doubt and worry. However, I pushed through, and, in the end, I have achieved what I wanted.”

Alice plans to continue pursuing her personal skating goals for many years to come and has already started putting her coaching skills into practice and developing potential skating stars of the future.

“Everything I’ve learnt has helped me become a better coach and develop my own coaching philosophy," she added. “My goal in coaching is for the skaters I work with to share the same love for the sport as I do. Of course, I would like my skaters to be skilful and successful in competitions, but my main objective is for them to be happy and to have lifelong participation.”

Dr Christopher Sellars, Head of School of Sport and Wellbeing at Leeds Trinity University, said: “It is a tremendous challenge for anyone to balance succeeding in their studies with a grueling training and competition schedule, but Alice has managed this and had some great achievements in both. This demonstrates tremendous resilience, motivation and time-management, for which Alice is to be applauded.”

For more information about the Physical Education and Sports Coaching degree at Leeds Trinity, and other courses available in Clearing, visit the University website.