Seonaid McIntosh

Team GB Olympic shooter furthers studies with the OU

After deciding to take a break from full-time education in the run-up to competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, studying with The Open University (OU) was the “perfect option” for Team GB rifle shooter Seonaid McIntosh.

In summer 2024 the 28-year-old World Champion and triple European Champion will be competing in three events at her second Olympic Games, in Paris, for Team GB (the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team). 

Seonaid became Britain's most successful female rifle shooter of all-time in 2019.

This was after winning three World Cup medals including gold, ranking number one in the world for the 50m Rifle Three Position event, and becoming European Champion in the 300m Rifle Prone event with an equal World Record score.

Following her incredible success, Seonaid was named Scottish Sportsperson of the Year 2019.

Keen to continue learning while training for her first Olympics, the shooting World Champion explained: “I had decided to take time out from full-time education in the year leading up to the Tokyo Olympics after graduating from my first degree.

"I knew I wanted to go on to study for a Masters in Biomedical Engineering, but I only had a background in the engineering aspects of the course. 

“I didn’t want to do nothing during my year’s break and needed something to do other than my sport, so I thought the OU’s Human Biology course would be the perfect option to further my studies but not take up too much time.”

‘The OU is a great option for those with other commitments’

Seonaid, who lives in Edinburgh, was attracted to studying with the OU because it “gave me the option to study in my own time and from wherever I was in the world while I was travelling".

The OU gave me the option to study in my own time and from wherever I was in the world...I could also gain a qualification rather than just reading."

"I could also gain a qualification rather than just reading”. 

For other sports professionals thinking about managing training, competing and studying at university, she suggests: “I think communication is the most important aspect to managing the balance between sport and studies.

"Making sure that you are communicating as early and as clearly as you can with your tutors about possible clashes and any problems that may come up.”

During her time studying with the OU, she found her tutor very helpful and understanding if she needed to submit an assessment slightly later due to her sporting commitments. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed by a year and Seonaid chose to defer starting the next stage of her university studies in Biomedical Engineering at a campus university.

However, she was confident that “the knowledge I gained from the OU course will come in handy then”.

“I think the OU is a great option for those who maybe have other commitments and want to spread out their studies over a longer period, or those who want to travel but continue learning,” she says.

Definitely go for it. It’s a really useful way to learn at a high level."

“Definitely go for it. It’s a really useful way to learn at a high level.”

Having since completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and then completing her Masters in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, Seonaid says: "The OU Human Biology course definitely helped me with my Masters.

"The first few weeks of the course aimed to get the students who had come from engineering up to speed on the anatomy side of things, and the students with a medical background up to speed on the engineering aspects.

"Cramming what felt like a four-year degree programme into the space of six weeks was definitely a challenge, but having completed the OU course I felt a lot more confident than some of my peers.

"I certainly didn’t envy the medical students who were trying to learn engineering for the first time!"

While she has no plans to retire yet from the sport she loves and excels in, Seonaid says: "This last couple of years being out of education has been really hard on me in a lot of ways. I’ve struggled with quite a few health problems and have often felt overwhelmed by the amount of things going on in my life.

"I think in a weird way I wish I had put more on my plate in the form of an organised course. I miss the structure that education gives you and I think having something else to occupy my mind would have been really helpful.

"I’ll be taking some time off after the Olympics but I may very well come back to education very soon!"