Former Loughborough College Sport student Mel Marshall has been awarded an MBE for services to swimming and charity in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Mel is a two-time GB Olympian and currently leads the elite program at the Loughborough National Swimming Centre where she coaches the likes of Adam Peaty to the top of Olympic, World Championship, European and Commonwealth podiums.
She has also nurtured the talents of other British athletes, such as world champion Luke Greenbank and European champions Anna Hopkin and Sarah Vasey.
Last year, Mel was chosen to help spearhead a nationwide programme to improve gender diversity across elite sport.
She has also made a difference with her charity work, including raising funds for a residential training facility in Zambia through the Perfect Day Foundation back in 2017, five years after completing a fundraising cycle with Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson. All in, Mel has raised in excess of £100,000 for the charity, and her charitable work remains an integral part of her life.
On receiving the MBE, Mel said: "I’m delighted to receive the MBE and this recognition. It's really important for me now that I can open doors with it, continue my work with charities and hopefully make bigger differences. I'm super over the moon, thankful for the opportunity and looking forward to hopefully being able to take my mum to meet the Queen!”
Jo Maher, Principal & CEO at Loughborough College, used to teach Mel when she was a student. She said: “We are absolutely delighted with the news of Mel’s well-deserved honour. I was part of Mel’s lecturing team and dissertation supervisor when she was studying for her degree with us, she was a fantastic student, an incredible athlete, and is a world class coach. We are so proud.”