A FORMER Bohunt School pupil is taking part in an Olympic Challenge, which sees him participating in each of the official summer Olympic sports featured in this summer’s Rio Games.

James Linney, 33, is a handful of sports away from completing his Olympic challenge which has seen him try out and learn 34 out of 41 different disciplines, from synchronised swimming to shooting and volleyball to marathon running.

With horse riding, hockey and gymnastics to go, he has almost achieved his goal and is looking to boost the £2,500 he has already raised for the charity GetKidsGoing, which aims to get disabled children into sport.

James said: “The objective of the challenge is that I participate in each of the official summer Olympic sports that are featured in the 2016 Rio Games.

“By participate I mean that I have either learned an aspect of the sport or taken part in a competition – be it at local, regional or national level.

“I remember hearing the news that London had won the right to host the 2012 summer Olympic Games. As a sports-mad individual, this was very exciting. I applied for a large number of tickets across athletics, swimming, tennis and cycling and, despite being unsuccessful at first, managed to get athletics tickets and saw Mo Farah win the 5,000 metres race."

He added: “I loved every minute of the London Olympics and when it was all over I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. This is when I came up with the idea of trying to participate in every Olympic sport by Rio 2016.

“I thought not only is this an exciting challenge, but in four years I will be able to learn every sport and fully appreciate the skills and athleticism involved.”

James took his swimming challenge at Guildford’s Spectrum and is learning to ride at Liphook’s Hewshott Lane Farm stables.

“I’ve started the toughest of all of the Olympic challenges – learning dressage, showjumping and eventing. I had been on a horse before, but not sure I’d ever really ridden one, so I was a little apprehensive.

“However, my nervousness went almost immediately and I actually felt relatively comfortable and in some sort of control.”

James has already completed his challenge in athletics, archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe slalom, canoe sprint, cycling – BMX, track, and road – diving, fencing, football, golf, handball, indoor volleyball, judo, mountain biking, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, swimming, synchronized swimming, tae kwon do, table tennis, tennis, trampoline, triathlon, waterpolo, weightlifting, Greco-Roman wrestling, and freestyle wrestling.

His remaining sports are hockey, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, and equestrian disciplines of dressage, eventing and showjumping.

* Another former Bohunt pupil is bidding to appear in her second Paralympics when the games are held in Brazil in September.

Athlete Olivia Breen was a member of the 4x100m sprint relay team four years ago and the Welsh sprint relay international is on course to star for Great Britain again in Rio.