Great Britain Sprint Canoeist, Amy Turner, supports the BRIT Ambassador family & the BRIT Challenge

We are delighted that Amy is part of our BRIT Ambassador family and championing the annual BRIT Challenge to support and improve young adult and student mental health and fitness throughout the UK.

Amy spent three years representing Great Britain at events including the ICF World Cup circuit, European Championships and Senior World Championships.

Amy Turner - Great Britain Sprint Canoeist

“I am delighted to be part of the BRIT Ambassador family and champion the BRIT Challenge to support and improve young adult mental health and fitness throughout the UK.

The annual BRIT Challenge is a super opportunity for every UK university, college, specialist college and Students’ Union to enter teams and encourage their students and staff to take part.

As a former School Outdoor Pursuits Instructor and student at Oxford Brookes University, Loughborough University and Nottingham Trent University, I can appreciate the many mental health challenges faced by students and young adults. I am also aware that the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the existing mental health challenges faced by many young adults, students and staff.

Ensuring that young adults and students receive support when they need it is vital; it is fantastic that BRIT are striving to unite the education, sport and charity sectors and are also inviting teams to choose a second charity to raise funds for, alongside BRIT, in order to support local regional and national charities.

The BRIT Challenge has been designed to be inclusive and enable students and staff of all abilities to participate in many ways including hand-cycling, cycling, wheelchair pushing, swimming, walking, jogging, running, rowing or paddling (canoeing, kayaking or paddle-boarding).

BRIT are providing inspiration and encouragement through their BRIT Ambassador family; Olympians, Paralympians, sports personalities, adventurers and explorers are uniting to support and improve young adult mental health by visiting universities and colleges throughout the UK. I urge elite athletes from every sport to join our BRIT Ambassador family and share their lived experience to destigmatise mental health, encourage participation in the BRIT Challenge and champion equality, diversity and inclusion.

I look forward to encouraging students and staff at Oxford Brookes University and Nottingham Trent University to enter teams and take on the BRIT Challenge.”

Before canoeing, Amy was a keen equestrian event rider and also swam at county level.

She found her local canoe club (Oxford Falcon Canoe Club) and organised her first session on the water. She was combining training at Banbury/Oxford Falcon Canoe Club with studying for a Sport Science Degree (BSc) at Oxford Brookes University before joining the UK Sport Talent Identification Programme, Girls4Gold.

Amy joined the Girls4Gold scheme in 2013 where she completed a tough selection procedure with 800+ candidates whittled down to 12 successful candidates. From her recruitment into the world of elite sport and Sprint Canoeing, Amy’s training increased. The Girls4Gold scheme was aimed at finding women aged between 19 – 25 years, who showed potential to win medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Following her selection, Amy moved up to Nottingham to train full-time at the National Water Sports Centre.

Following two years training full time on the scheme, Amy successfully transitioned into the Senior team. Concurrently, during her time in Nottingham, she finished her BSc in Sport and Exercise Science with 1st Class Hons at Loughborough University and her MSc in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University.

Despite only first picking up a paddle in 2011, during her three years as part of the Great Britain team, Amy took fifth place in the first round of the 2017 World Cup and ninth place at the 2017 World Championships. Following the Senior World Championships in 2018, Amy retired from International Competition in order to pursue a challenging career in the corporate sector.

To read more about Canoe Sprint Racing in the UK, please visit the official site of the Canoe Sprint Racing Committee.

For more information on canoeing and para-canoeing in the UK, please visit the British Canoeing website and the UK Sport website.

You can follow Amy on Twitter.