Patients at the Royal United Hospitals in Bath might just be treated by an Olympic athlete. Kerenza Bryson, 26, represented Great Britain at the Paris Games last summer and has since swapped her fencing sword for a stethoscope.

Bryson competed in the women's Modern Pentathlon at the 2024 Olympics, finishing ninth. The Modern Pentathlon involves mastering running, shooting, swimming, horse riding and fencing: quite the tall order! The event was first held in 1912, inspired by the traditional pentathlon held during the ancient Olympics, and was designed to model skills needed by a soldier of that time who had been trapped behind enemy lines.

The Olympian, who joined the RUH in December, thanked the hospital for being supportive of her sporting career: "Completing my medical degree at Plymouth University while also training for the Olympics has been challenging to say the least! I would get up at 5.30am to train before getting into hospital for 8.30am for placement, followed by training again at 6pm, then eat dinner around 7.30pm, with time for one final training session finishing at 10pm. Then sleep. Then repeat!

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“It was an extremely difficult balance to get right at the time, so I was so pleased to both graduate from medical school and achieve an Olympic qualification spot just weeks apart. For the year running into the Olympic Games, I chose to be a full-time athlete and focus fully on sport, deferring starting work as a doctor for a year, which was one of the best decisions I made."

The woman's pentathlon competitor, who finished ninth in the 2024 Olympics, continued: "I am very lucky that the RUH team were so supportive of my ambitions in Paris. It’s early days working here in Bath, but everyone here has been so supportive and accommodating, which has really helped with the transition from life as a full-time athlete to being a full-time resident doctor.”

Between being a doctor and a star athlete, the 26-year-old has somehow also found time to become an Army Reservist and would like to practice as a army doctor in the future. She has also amassed an impressive collection of medals: she won gold at the World Cup in Turkey, bronze medal at the World Cup in Egypt and gold at the European Championship in Hungary.

Despite not quite reaching the podium in Paris, Bryson would like to try again at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. She said: "The Olympics is like nothing else and if I could win an Olympic medal, it would be the realisation of a dream that I’ve had since I was a child. Whilst I am disappointed not to have got a medal this time around, I am very proud to say that I am now an Olympian, and was lucky enough to have so many of my friends and family there to support me.

“With a feeling of unfinished business, I am now set on giving Los Angeles 2028 my best shot and seeing if that could be my chance of a medal second time around. For now though, I have switched focus to my medical career for some time, so will be working though the new challenges that I am presented with.”

“Going into the Games I was in a really good place, mentally and physically, but I put a lot of pressure on myself to medal given the successes I had had in the 12-18 months prior.

“Nothing is quite like the atmosphere of the Olympics and nothing can quite prepare you for competing at the biggest competition of your life in front of 20,000 people and hundreds of cameras.

“I held it together in my semi-finals, crossing the line in first place and setting a new Olympic record, but after a slightly overwhelming start in the final, I was fighting from the back to get into medal position until the end.

“Ending my first Games with a ninth place finish was not what I had hoped for, but I made the final and learned a lot in the process, not just about sport, but about everything else that is important to me.

“The experience was incredible. Being with the rest of Team GB in the Olympic Village was wonderful, it really felt like being part of one big community, and something really special. I couldn’t believe I was rubbing shoulders with such amazing athletes, some of whom I had looked up to for years."

Bryson who grew up in Devon, began her Olympic journey at the age of just 11, when she joined the Pentathlon Academy at Plymouth College. “As a child, I had so much energy, so ended up trying all of the different sports clubs and afterschool activities that I could possibly find.” she said.

“I somehow qualified for, and competed at, the National Championships when I was aged 11, where I surprised myself and everyone else with my performance, given my lack of experience and preparation at the time. I was talent spotted from there and the rest is history.”