British triathlete Oliver Conway has quickly risen through the international ranks whilst balancing life as a Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Nottingham. Winning 2025 Saida World Cup, U23 World Championship and BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) gold, Oliver has quickly established himself as one of Nottingham's top sport scholars. We set down with Oliver to discuss his journey into triathlon, his experience at Nottingham and his ambitions as he continues to compete on the world stage.
Nice to meet you Oliver, can you tell me a bit about yourself and how you came to study at Nottingham?
Sure, I'm originally from Oxford and obviously do quite a few triathlons! I started the sport when I was around 8 years old. I think it was after watching the Brownlee brothers at the 2012 Olympics, and I really got into it around 2013 because my Dad pretty much just entered me into a triathlon, and I've pretty much done them ever since. I wanted to continue my sport whilst at university and they've got a pretty decent squad here at the University of Nottingham.
My coach that I've been working with before I started university - Steve Lloyd - is a coach here, so I think that has definitely helped. I also think that the set-up is really beneficial here because there's a really nice training squad with external athletes, and I came here for the sport but also for the degree as well. I have changed courses because I was studying Product Design and now I'm doing Mechanical Engineering, but I've split years, so it's easier for me to manage with my sport and I can balance everything out and make it easier for me to achieve in both.
Do you have any academic career goals after university, or is that just something you want to do for now?
I'm currently aiming to achieve my degree and have that as a backup plan - if sport doesn't work out I've still got something to fall back on. I'm still motivated to get the degree, I'm still driven - but I think at the moment, the priority is my sport because it's all going so well, so I'm trying hard to balance my focus as best as possible.
What is it about the sport of triathlon that made you fall in love with it and continue it to this level?
I think the fact that there's 3 different disciplines - if you get bored of one, you can go onto another one. I personally prefer the cycling and running - I don't really like the swimming as much! I mean, I still get enjoyment out of it, but it can get a bit boring going up and down the pool the whole time. However, running and cycling outdoors gets me into my own space and I'm able to feel like I'm getting away from everyone. I can cycle quite far away when I want to, so it provides that type of alone time, I guess. Then I obviously really enjoy the social side of sport as well because I've found that you do meet quite a lot of people through triathlon.
So, I know recently won a world title - congratulations! How do you handle the pressure of competitions?
I just try not to try not to think about it! I guess at the end of the day - it's just a race, everything's not going to completely fall apart if you don't do good. You just have to trust yourself going into it, focus on what you can do, and not really think about other people around. I usually try and focus on the swim start because that's where I feel I'm not the strongest out of the three disciplines so just getting that out of the way and then being able to focus on my strengths, which is mainly the run.
How do you manage to come down after a major accomplishment or competition?
Yes - it is a bit like being back to reality! To be honest, it was pretty full on with university when I got back because we were out at the Under-23 World Championships in Australia for 3 to 4 weeks, so I missed out on quite a lot. When I came back, I had tonnes to catch up on. I think I'm always focussing on the next race, so I probably don't take in the races I do well at - well, definitely not as much as I'd want to. I probably focus more on the bad races I have because that's just sort of how my brain works. Even now I'm thinking - what can I do next season? How can I step it up?
However, I obviously did still go and celebrate the world title with my mates because it was a big achievement for me!
You've already had plenty of BUCS success this year, how do you feel about this season?
I'm just really enjoying it. It's different because at the moment I'm racing quite a lot internationally, so I don't get to race the British guys as much. However, I do enjoy racing against other students from universities across the country because half of them I know from having raced against them when I was younger. It's also nice going into BUCS events as part of a team and racing with the people you train with - I really enjoy it. I think there's still a bit of pressure because you don't want to let the team down, and I probably put more pressure on myself for the BUCS Duathlon because of the team aspect. If I had done badly at the World Under-23 Championships, that's just sort of letting myself down so it doesn't matter as much. I also guess I wasn't really expected to win those championships, but coming off of that success into BUCS - I'd set the bar high so I didn't really want to do badly. Luckily I was able to put in another good effort and came away with another gold.
What are your future competition aims?
A big aim for me is trying to get onto the 2028 LA Olympic squad. I obviously want to get to that level, but I think it's going to be really tough because there's so many good athletes around my age and older who are already winning tonnes of stuff - such as Alex Yee who won gold at the last games. I think to make the squad will be an achievement in itself - let alone performing well there - so I just want to aim for that. I think next year I'm aiming to podium at the WTCS (World Triathlon Championship Series) which is essentially the top level for triathlon. I would quite like to do well in that, to be honest - but we'll just see how it goes! I need to race the best I can and see what I can do.
How do you find balancing studies whilst travelling and completely internationally?
The university do help a lot with the scholarship programme set-up here. I've got a lifestyle advisor, David Knapton, and he helps quite a lot with working with my course leads to help manage my situation and balance. He's been able to help in enabling me to go away for competitions while still trying to keep up with work. I probably don't keep up as much as I want at times, but I think I've obviously got a lot in place to allow me to go and race, so the university have been a massive help in that aspect to be honest.
Well leading onto that then, how was it been to be a scholar at University of Nottingham?
I think it's massive. The aspect I probably use the most is the strength & conditioning support and the physio - it really helps. I think triathlon can be quite an injury prone sport so I try and make sure I'm at the High Performance Zone and Sports Injury Clinic as much as I can, and I get help there quite a lot with trying to prevent injuries. Again, balancing my education with triathlon through my scholar lifestyle advisor David - I think he's a massive help because he's able to take quite a lot of stress off of me and lets me focus on sport.
What would you say to other high-level athletes that want to go to university - do you have any advice?
Probably to keep on top of the work! You don't want to fall back completely so that then when it's exam season you have to cram everything in and miss training. I'm probably not the best at that, but if you do go dual-career - keeping on top of the workload is the main thing. Making sure the university course leads know that you do sport at a high level is also key as they are obviously also able to help out if they can.
I personally think it's really good to have something alongside sport because otherwise your life is just sport. I think you need to have a balance, otherwise I think you could get a bit bored of your sport. Having my studies as well gives me something else to focus on, so I think it has been a pretty good choice for me.
We would like to thank Oliver for his time during a busy period and congratulate him on his incredible success in 2025. We look forward to supporting Oliver as he continues his fantastic trajectory within Triathlon, as well as his studies here at the University of Nottingham.
You can find out more about the sports scholarship programme at the University of Nottingham here; Sports Scholarships at the University of Nottingham.