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With 327 athletes making up Team GB at the Paris Olympics this year, there are plenty of interesting characters who have normal jobs away from sport.
Jacob Fincham-Dukes, who finished fifth in the long jump, is a health and safety compliance manager; while 1,500m runner Georgia Bell works in cyber security.
Rose Harvey paused a career in law to become a marathon runner; Matthew Hudson-Smith used to work at Asda before becoming a 400m athlete; while sailor Hannah Snellgrove wrote obituaries in a newspaper and applied for a job with MI5.
Another British sprinter who might have made the list is Eugene Amo-Dadzie – known as the ‘world’s fastest accountant’ – but he was not selected for the team.
Here, MailOnline looks at the careers of some of those competing in France:
JACOB FINCHAM-DUKES
Long jumper + health and safety compliance manager
Team GB athlete Jacob Fincham-Dukes will return to his day job in the US tomorrow after finishing fifth in the finals of the long jump at the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old flew back to Texas after Tuesday’s event and will be back in the office for a company called ISN where he works in health and safety compliance.
Fincham-Dukes, who was born in Harrogate, studied at Oklahoma State University for an MBA in business administration and management between 2020 and 2022.
He became its long jump record holder and his fifth place on Tuesday was the best ever finish at the Olympics by a track and field athlete from the university.
Jacob Fincham-Dukes tells the BBC in Paris on Tuesday that he will return to his job on Friday
Jacob Fincham-Dukes in the men’s long jump final at the Stade de France in Paris on Tuesday
Jacob Fincham-Dukes jumps on Tuesday to finish fifth in the long jump final at Paris 2024
Jacob Fincham-Dukes (second left), pictured on LinkedIn, is a senior associate at ISN in Texas
Jacob Fincham-Dukes attended Oklahoma State University where he graduated with an MBA
Fincham-Dukes stayed in the US after graduating and in September 2022 began working for ISN, where he is now a senior associate in its Arlington office.
Speaking to BBC Sport on Tuesday after his jump, he said: ‘I really hope I’ve done myself justice, because I work full-time, I’m back at work on Friday.
‘So I’m carrying a lot of extra stress that these guys don’t have to deal with.
‘I’ve carried myself tremendously well this year. Fourth at Europeans, fifth at the Olympics. I wasn’t supposed to finish fifth on ranking there, so I think I’ve done myself proud.’
In a previous interview with ISN, which is a contractor and supplier information management company, Fincham-Dukes said: ‘I train seven to eight times a week. My day starts at 5am with a gym session, followed by work, and then another workout.
‘My weekly routine includes weight training before work and practice sessions afterward, with a recovery stretching session on Wednesdays.’
GEORGIA BELL
1,500m runner + cyber security expert
Georgia Bell is a 1,500 metre runner who also describes herself on LinkedIn as a ‘hard-working cyber security enthusiast’.
The 30-year-old – who has qualified for today’s semi-finals at Paris 2024 – is a senior enterprise account manager for a company in London called Abnormal Security.
Speaking to the Daily Mail in February, she said: ‘I have a 9-5 job in cyber security software in London. We use machine learning and AI to plug into organisations and see how they are getting hacked.
Georgia Bell comfortably qualifies in second in her 1,500 metres heat at Paris 2024 on Tuesday
Georgia Bell posted this picture on LinkedIn in May when she took leave to focus on Paris 2024
Georgia Bell (right) after her heat on Tuesday in women’s 1,500 metres at the Stade de France
‘A lot of times companies come to us after they have had a cyber attack and need to get something in to protect themselves. We work with companies all over the world. It’s very interesting. It’s a booming business.’
Bell – whose father Andy is the political editor of Channel 5 News – began working in cyber security after studying for a masters in political science at the University of California, Berkeley.
She added: ‘Luckily, a lot of my job is working from home, which cuts out a two-hour commute each day and allows me to train in the mornings and evenings.
‘It’s still a lot to manage and things might change going up into the summer. At the moment, it’s a big juggling act to make it all happen.’
In May she said on LinkedIn that she was going on work-supported leave to put all her focus on getting to Paris, adding: ‘Thank you to my amazing team, partners, customers for all the kind messages of support. Lets do this.’
Bell secured her place in today’s semis, which are at 7.35pm local time (6.35pm UK), after finishing second in her heat with 4:00.29. The final is on Saturday evening.
ROSE HARVEY
Marathon runner + corporate lawyer
British athlete Rose Harvey will compete in the women’s marathon this Sunday after giving up a career in corporate law to focus on her running.
The 31-year-old from Clapham in South West London previously dedicated most of her time to her busy job as a finance lawyer which left little space for athletics.
She ran a sub-three hour marathon in 2017 but was unable to keep her pace while her job often saw her working until the early hours of the morning plus weekends.
Harvey qualified in law with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Birmingham before completing her master’s at The University of Law Moorgate in London.
She joined legal firm Pinsent Masons as a trainee solicitor in 2015, before moving to the sports lender 23 Capital as a lawyer in 2018 and then RW Blears in 2021.
Rose Harvey posted this picture on Instagram as she gears up for the marathon on Sunday
Rose Harvey will compete in the Paris Olympics after being made redundant during lockdown
Rose Harvey lives with her fiancé Charlie Thuillier, who is her manager and joins her in training
Rose Harvey celebrates with Weynay Ghebresilasie after they were the first Brits home in the women’s and men’s elite race during the London Marathon in October 2022
But Harvey was made redundant during lockdown which saw her spend much more time on the track, and she was spotted by coach Phil Kissi while training in Battersea Park.
He began to train her and by the 2021 Cheshire Marathon she had shaved 30 minutes off her personal best. She is now a professional athlete, sponsored by Puma, and competes full-time.
Speaking to the Team GB website in April, Harvey said: ‘I have no sporting genes and none of my family are particularly interested in sport, either. I was a corporate lawyer and it’s a bit of a generational thing, that’s seen as a very good career.
‘I’d worked hard to get there and ended up in a big city job that was very stable and very predictable. Making the switch to being a pro runner has required a lot of explanation, let’s put it that way.
‘They still ask me, ‘when are you going back to being a lawyer?’ My parents’ generation, you stay in one, sensible job and I was channelled into having a good career at a young age and not going rogue. They know what the Olympics are, though.’
Harvey lives with her fiancé Charlie Thuillier, who is her manager and joins her on training and competing trips around the world.
MATTHEW HUDSON-SMITH
400-metre runner
Former Asda worker
Matthew Hudson-Smith became the fastest-ever British 400-metre runner last night, but just ten years ago he was stacking shelves at an Asda in Birmingham.
The athlete, who broke his own European record with a time of 43.44 seconds in the Stade de France in Paris, was also considering joining the Army at the time.
Hudson-Smith told the Mail in June that has kept the ‘apply now’ email to remind him of the path he almost chose after falling out of love with athletics and realising his dream of playing football for Wolverhampton Wanderers would not happen.
Matthew Hudson-Smith after finishing second in the men’s 200m final in Paris yesterday
An emotional Matthew Hudson-Smith hugs his proud mother after the race in Paris last night
Hudson-Smith studied physical education and sports coaching at the University of Worcester
He said: ‘I was bored out of my skull working at Asda, Brierley Hill at the time. It was fun to flirt with the old people – they loved my till! But it was just repetitive work.
‘I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I didn’t want to work at Asda and I didn’t want to go to university. So when I got that email, I was like, ‘Make money? Travel the world? Why not?’ and I signed up.’
Hudson-Smith, 29, waited to hear back from the Army, but at the same time he got a chance to run the 400m at a Diamond League meet in Glasgow.
There, he finished third with a personal best of 44.97 seconds and said: ‘My life literally changed in a day. It could have been a lot, lot different.’
Hudson-Smith was an academy player with Wolves and studied physical education and sports coaching at the University of Worcester. He now lives in Florida and secured a silver medal in Paris after missing out on Tokyo 2020 due to injury.
HANNAH SNELLGROVE
Sailor + Folk musician, newspaper reporter and failed MI5 applicant
Sailor Hannah Snellgrove is a fascinating character who has worked for a local newspaper, sings in a folk band and even once applied for a job with MI5.
The 34-year-old, who started sailing aged seven, took on a number of different jobs after being dropped by the British Sailing programme in 2014 – and even went busking to help buy a boat.
The Cambridge natural sciences graduate applied for a role with the British security services, telling Olympics.com in July last year: ‘But I didn’t get in. Or did I?’
Hannah Snellgrove competes in the women’s dinghy at the Olympics in Marseille on Monday
Hannah Snellgrove (left) plays the tin whistle and sings with her folk band Bimbling
She plays the tin whistle and sings with her folk band Bimbling and even wrote obituaries for the New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times newspapers.
Snellgrove said: ‘You go into somebody’s house or somebody who’s just lost one of the most important people in their lives and you listen to their story, and I always found that I was always very honoured to do obituaries, which sounds kind of strange.
‘But I actually loved hearing people’s life stories and often people would phone up afterwards and say how therapeutic it was to talk about the person they just lost.’
Speaking about being dropped by British Sailing in 2014, she told the Daily Star in February: ‘I didn’t really see it coming and didn’t really have a Plan B.
‘I self-funded for a year and blew all my savings. I applied for a couple of graduate jobs in London, got offered a couple and then was questioning why I was doing that, as I wasn’t sure I wanted to do any of them. I was a bit lost.’
Snellgrove failed to qualify for London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 – but got in for Paris 2024. She finished 12th in the women’s dinghy in Marseille on Monday which saw her narrowly miss out on the final.
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