This week’s campus celeb is the beautiful and oh so inspiring Miss Lorna Gater! This 4th year Law with Accountancy student from Dunblane is only 21 and already stirring up a storm. Lorna is currently the Captain AND Miss President of the University of Aberdeen’s Boxing Club. A bit surprising you say for a girl to be a boxer? Well, hopefully Miss Gater will don her boxing gloves and change your mind.
Always being a sporting keen bean Lorna used to represent Scotland playing tennis, until a little mishap caused her to slip a disc in her lower spine… OUCH! One theatre room later and lying in her hospital bed this future boxing champ watched Nicola Adams, the first ever female boxer, win the Gold Medal in the 2012 Olympics. Inspired and recovered, Lorna jumped into action when she came back into her second year of Uni and joined the boxing team.
In her second year Lorna started training and competing for the Uni team but bumped herself up to treasurer of the club in her third year. However, Lorna let HC into a secret that one of her biggest life achievements was to be nominated to be Captain of the team in her final year of Uni life! Even after her back surgery and being advised not to train hard or lift weights, never mind competing in a full contact sport, Lorna made her place on the boxing scene by winning BUCS!
Now we girls at Her Campus think it is blooming fantastic that Lorna has made her way into this male dominated sport (C’mon the girls!), and there are more girls than ever are attending the team’s training sessions. She is so proud of all the girls in the club, putting on a pair of gloves and sparring with the boys –obviously showing them up. Our campus celeb is fully backing more female students becoming involved in AU sports such as boxing and weight lifting. Not only are these sports difficult and hard hitting but they create a great work ethic and dedication required for all women of the 21st century. As Lorna says “It is a tough sport and us girls are tough!” This strong lady thinks that girls should not be afraid to get more involved with ‘male dominated’ sports and in actual fact we can do just as well as the boys – if not even better.
The journey to starhood of being a boxing champion (and HC Celeb) does have its challenges along the way. Boxing is an extremely tough sport to compete in, therefore it takes a lot of dedication and determination to train in order to compete, however, you also must get to the right weight and not drink or eat any junk food for an extended period of time prior to a fight. Early morning training and giving up partying for a few months all for 6 minutes in a ring is a tough call, but we know at HC how much this celeb loves it and she is a fantastic advocate for the sport. With leading females in boxing such as Katie Taylor and Cecilia Braehus, we hope we can see Lorna Gater there in the future. Helping new members develop their skills and watching them train to become great boxers inspires Lorna even more to compete and help AU win more medals! A quote from the main gal herself, “Strong is the new skinny ladies!”
We really hope that this week’s inspiring Campus Celeb has got you more interested so here are a few deets about AU’s Boxing Club:
Trainings run at ASV: Monday – 9-10.30pm
Wednesday – 2.30-4.30pm
Friday – 5-7pm