Our Sporting Life

A celebration of winter sporting excellence is now on display at the National Ice Centre. Next time you’re in our main foyer or T&D Café Bar check out the new exhibition created as part of Our Sporting Life’s nationwide series.

You can check out all the pictures from the Our Sporting Life Exhibition at The National Ice Centre on our official Flickr page!

The NIC exhibition highlights Nottingham’s winter sporting excellence and features stories, articles, images and background information about some of the personalities, clubs and events that have been connected with our city and the venue over the years.

At a special opening ceremony Geoff Huckstep, Chief Executive at National Ice Centre, said: “The NIC is proud to support so many winter sporting displines reflected in this exhibition. We’re proud of our athletes and the training they do here from grass roots level to Olympic standard. This exhibition really brings to life our city’s rich ice skating heritage and I hope the public will enjoy finding out a bit more about Nottingham’s sporting life.”

Also at the launch event were Olympic sporting athletes who are represented in the exhibition including Speed Skater and Olympic bronze medal winner Nicky Gooch. He said: “ I’m very proud to be an Olympian and represent the country on the world wide sporting stage. It’s great winning an Olympic medal and when people ask how I did in the games it makes me very proud to say I’m a medallist. The National Ice Centre has a big role in that as home to the GB Short Track Speed Skating Team and the place where many hours of hard training are put in. Without the NIC’s on-going support it would not be possible for our athletes to train at the level of excellence you need to be an Olympian.”

The exhibition was also a step back in time for Jean and Bryan Grummitt, whose photos are included in the exhibition. Bryan was the first person to be crowded British Speed Skating Champion in 1958. He and Jean met at the ice rink when she skated in the shows and now their grandchild, Nick Buckland and his partner Penny are carrying on the family tradition as the first Nottingham couple since Torvill and Dean to get to the Olympics last year. Jean said: “It really takes us back to see these photos. I was just 15 when that photo was taken and it was just before I met Bryan. We’re very proud of Nick and Joe – who is also training at the NIC, and we still spend a lot of our time here. Bryan even went on the ice on his 80th birthday!.”

The exhibition will run at the NIC until December 17 and then highlights from this will become part of the largest ever exhibition of British sporting life and heritage in London for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Objects and stories from the nations and regions will be joined by icons and treasures from our national sports, such as the Ashes Urn, Calcutta Cup, and the football from the 1966 World Cup Final to name a few.

Let us know…
We’d love to know what has inspired you and how… This could be a sporting hero or an event, an object, photograph or experience you would be happy to share with others! Just send us an email with “Our Sporting Life” in the subject header and check back to see if your experience makes it online!

Click the links below to listen to some inspirational audio from some of the most influential sporting figures at the National Ice Centre

Geoff Huckstep

Mandy Worth

Marc Levers

Mark Briggs

Matt Bradbury

Nic Williams

» Click here to visit the official Our Sporting Life website

» Click here to read the official National Ice Centre Press Release for the Our Sporting Life Exhibition

» Click here to view all the pictures from the event on our official Flickr page!

Trading as Nottingham Ice Centre Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. Registered Office: Bolero Square, Lace Market, Nottingham NG1 1LA. Company Number: 3563341.