A FORMER Olympic canoeist from Fladbury is ‘humbled’ to have been made an MBE in the King’s New Year Honours List.
Andy Train, who competed in five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000, was given the accolade in recognition of his services to sport.
Since 2022, he has been the driving force behind the Birmingham Community Paddle Sport Project, which aims to make paddlesports more accessible to people from a diverse range of ethnic and social backgrounds.
Supported by Paddle UK, the scheme has so far created eight hubs across the city’s extensive canal network, which has to date enabled more than 1,400 young people to take to the water.
Andy was surprised and humbled to get the official envelope from Buckingham Palace a few weeks before the end of last year.
“I am humbled as I have worked with so many good, deserving people over the years,” he told the Observer. “It’s been a team effort.”
He hopes the award will shine a light on the Birmingham project, which has opened up recreational paddlesports to communities that had never previously considered activities like bell boating or kayaking.
“I hope this highlights the inequalities in sport and health, and also the ‘blue space’ Birmingham has, which needs looking after and seeing as a valuable asset.
“So many people I have worked with and who live near a canal either never knew they existed or that they could be used recreationally,” he said.
Andy’s focus has been to train up local leaders within communities as instructors to enable them to run paddling hubs independently and extend provision.
This has helped create a deeper community connection and a stronger sense of ownership over the city’s canal network, which Andy thinks is a much underutilised recreational resource.
He was introduced to canoeing aged three by his dad, David Train, inventor of the bell boat and founder of the Fladbury Paddle Club in 1972.
Andy has lived in the village since a young child and has been very much part of the club, having served as its chair.
A lifelong paddler, he won three ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships with his brother Stephen in 1988, 1996 and 1998.
A second person living in the Vale who received recognition is social worker Claire Burgess from Pershore, who was made a CBE for services to children’s social care.
Claire has spent more than 30 years working at a senior level in the sector for local, regional, and national government and currently works at the Department for Education as a social care advisor.
