Loughborough College alumna Elise Christie has been named as Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year.
After becoming a triple world champion in March, the short-track speed skater received the prestigious accolade in the Awards’ 30th year - joining previous winners including Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Dame Kelly Holmes.
Loughborough College student Sophie Hahn MBE was selected as one of the final four for Disabled Sportswoman of the Year in the Sunday Times awards.
Elise, who studied on the highly successful AASE programme at Loughborough College, is a ten time European gold medalist and in the 2017 World Championships in Rotterdam won the 1000m, 1500m and the overall gold – the first British and first European woman to do so.
"It feels amazing. I feel like I've won the World Championships again. I just didn't even expect to be nominated so to win it is just incredible.”
Elise was disqualified from all three of her events, the 500m, 1,000m and 1500m, at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and says she considered quitting the sport but after claiming three world titles this year she is now looking ahead to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. "I just cannot believe I turned it all around."
Sophie was named as Disabled Sports Person of the Year at the Nottingham Post Sports Awards on the same night.
A 2016 Paralympic champion, the Lougborough College Sport student, who is still only 20, shattered her own world record at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championship this summer on the way to winning her third consecutive world title in the T38 100m – and her second gold at the competition.