An Olympian who celebrated getting her A Levels this week has praised Alleyn’s school for helping her to achieve her dreams.
Eden Cheng took home her first major medal in 2018 when she was just fifteen, after winning gold at the European Championships in the 10 metre Platform Synchro with her partner Lois Toulson.
While competing in this year’s Olympics she was also juggling her A Levels in maths, biology and PE at Alleyn’s in Dulwich.
“I am not going to lie, it has been challenging, it has not been easy, it is like having two full time jobs,” she conceded.
“So when I am at school I really put on my thinking cap and try and put everything that is from the pool away and focus on my academics, and when I am at the pool I am thinking about only diving, and not trying to think or worry about deadlines or assessments or what I need to do.
“Alleyn’s School has been really supportive all through my journey from year seven.”
She says as soon as the possibility of competing in Tokyo came up, she and the school came up with a plan to keep her education on track.
“The school and the teachers have been so supportive, have given me extra to work on and have made sure all the materials are available for me when I am across the world,” she said.
“In COVID times it was even a little easier because everything was online and I didn’t have to be in the classroom to absorb everything.
“The recordings of the lessons were very useful because if I am in a lesson online while I am at the pool, it is disruptive, so having the recordings I can pause, go back, rewatch.
“And the level of detail in the online lessons meant it was as if I was in the classrooms.
“At school it felt like a community and as though I was still part of something, and even when I was away the teachers would still be asking me how I was, if I needed any help.
“They would always help me out with having tests arranged so that I could do them online, via Teams or Microsoft forms, that was very helpful.”
Eden and her partner finished seventh at Tokyo. Despite not achieving the result they hoped for, Eden and Lois still have much to celebrate. She plans to spend time with her family, including her sister, to celebrate both her Team GB performance and A Level results.
“All in all it has been quite a journey but I have to say it has been hard, a lot of late nights, sometimes tears, but if I didn’t have the support from Mrs Lunnon and the school, the staff I don’t think I would be here or be able to have so much success in my academic career as in my sporting career,” she adds.
Longer term Eden is hoping to study in the USA at the University of California in September 2022. In the meantime, diving will come first.
“In this coming year I am going to focus on my diving a little bit more and try to establish myself as more of an individual diver and also there are a couple of major events this year, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and also the World Championships which will be taking place in Japan.”