On the 12th of December 2024, decorated Royal Holloway Alumni Sophie Christiansen CBE returned to the University for a visit. Reflecting on her time as a student at the University, she toured campus and met up with members of the current Royal Holloway Riding Club before our interview.
It was clear returning to the Royal Holloway Campus was a greatly nostalgic experience for Christiansen; when asked how it felt to return to her former university she explained, ‘It’s amazing! Every time I come back, I think, when we’re here we take this gorgeous building for granted, but every time I come, I comment “wow, did I really come here?”’
When talking about what she was able to take away from her time at Royal Holloway in addition to her MSc Mathematics, she discussed that her time at university ‘was a real stepping stone in independence because, especially when you’ve got a disability, it’s like “what can I do?” and “what do I need a little bit of help with?”’
She said ‘Living in halls was really useful. I had carers come in to help me in the morning to get dressed and have breakfast, and then in the evening to cook a meal. So, I learned how to live independently, whilst having quite a structured day with my lectures. That really helped me to then move on to a job and live independently.’
Discussing her achievements as an athlete, Christiansen explained what first drew her to competing in dressage, elaborating that she ‘started riding horses for physiotherapy, to help with my disability when I was six years old. So, I rode for a few years and then wanted to find a sport that I really am good at, because I needed to always play sport in school.’ And once she discovered dressage, she ‘started to want to be the best that I could be.’
In Christiansen’s own words, her time at Royal Holloway benefited greatly from her athletic career outside of her studies as she explained how, ‘by the time I came to university it was kind of just what I did. I’d already been to one Paralympic Games, and that balance of education and elite sport really suited me, because when I got bored of studying, I could go training, and when elite sport got a bit too pressurised, I knew I had my education that I could fall back on. It really worked well for me.’
When asked about whether she felt supported while balancing the intensive lifestyle of a Master’s degree and elite sport during her time at Royal Holloway, Christiansen described how ‘Royal Holloway was amazing for me because, when we had exams, they always checked with me what my competition schedule was. I mean, my friends used to hate me because we always used to have a clump of exams so that I could have a gap to compete in! But, they were so supportive.
‘When I came back from Beijing, I’d won my first Paralympic gold medal and came back into my second year at university, and back then no one really knew what the Paralympics was. So, I came back and it was all normal, and I had what we call post-Games blues. I got really quite depressed and none of my friends really knew what I was going through.
‘And then, one day, I had a meeting in the Maths Department, with my advisor, and she took one look at me and was like, “Sophie, are you OK?” She fully understood what I was going through. She said, “you’ve been in this fairytale world and now you’re back to reality.” Having that one person to understand what I was going through really meant the world to me.
‘Royal Holloway’s quite a small community. Everyone knows everyone; what we’re going through. So that really helped me when I was here and competing at the highest level as well.’
Having announced her retirement in November, we asked Christiansen what she hopes to do and focus on following her retirement. She explained that ‘I’ve always done education and got a job alongside my sport. My sport is quite expensive, so I knew that I had to earn money alongside. I’ve always had that to fall back on, my job.
‘Anything can happen in sport, you can get injured, so having something to fall back on I would say is so important. For me, this transition has been really easy because I’m just doing what I used to do but now going to work a few more days a week.
‘But also, with my platform as a gold medallist and being disabled, it’s been amazing to be able to advocate for disability rights, because every day I face some challenge or other. For me to highlight what I go through just to live a normal life is really important, and to lobby the government on policies to make things better for disabled people. I’ll always continue that. So, I’m not going to slow down! I’ll still be really busy.’
Undoubtedly one of Royal Holloway’s most decorated alumni, it was a great privilege to interview Sophie Christiansen during her return visit to the university and I would like to thank her once again for giving so many insights to her life, both at Royal Holloway and beyond.