Rowin sets his sights on the Olympics

Meet Rowin Leil II

Rowin has had some tremendous success in his chosen sport of wrestling. He spends a lot of his day training both morning and evening while attending college to get his qualifications. Rowin recently has been working towards his even longer term goals of owning his own wrestling club.

We took some time out to speak to Rowin and find out more about his journey at the College so far...

What course are you studying?

Sports and Fitness BTEC Foundation Diploma level 3

What made you choose the course?

I was interested in sport due to my professional wrestling career and I wanted to see if I could be an assistant in the gym first and then go on to be a personal trainer, in order to enhance my current skill set.

Tell us a bit about which sports you do outside of College.

I do Olympic freestyle wrestling – something I’ve been doing since I was 12 and I got into it because my grandfather and father both used to do it. My grandfather was two time British and European champion and my father wrestled in the 80s and 90s, but had spinal surgery which took him out of wrestling.

What is your wrestling journey?

I had to stop during lockdown but when we came back, I started training harder and I won the British championships so I’m the British champion, English champion, two times Midlands champion, two time Irish champion, and European bronze medalist in Helsinki and Thallinn in Estonia.

My aim is to compete in the Olympics and see how far I can go from there.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

I want to do my PhD at university and at the same time work as a personal trainer and hopefully be a physiotherapist as well and also coach wrestling. I’d also like to be the world champion at wrestling.

My aim is to start my own wrestling club, I have recently turned 18 and started to work on my freestyle wrestling coaching course, I have completed my level 1 and close to completing my level 2 qualification alongside my college exams and study.

So big ambitions. How do you juggle your training and studying?

I train every day, 14 times per week. So, in the morning, I wake up at 5am and train for two hours before college. Then I go to college, do all my assignments, and then train for another two hours before going home to eat and sleep – then repeat!

That is a big commitment. Does this stop you having a social life?

I speak to my friends at college and on the phone, but I do have to make sacrifices. However, if we’ve arranged something and I’m not training then I will go out with them and chill. My friends do MMA and boxing and compete so they’re all supportive.

What have you learnt about sports and fitness from the course that you didn’t know before?

I’ve learnt a lot about the gym and how to use the machines and also more about the body and its muscles. I’ve learnt more about session plans so how many reps to do, etc.

What’s been the most beneficial exercise that you’ve learnt while at college?

Probably how to use the Smith Machine so basically squats and resistance training, bench press. I’d say squats are one of my favourite exercises.

What do you think of Leicester College and your time here, and are you happy with the choice you made?

I think Leicester College is a good college and has helped me with learning about sport, which is what I’m interested in, it has a gym and it’s quite close to home. Which helps me juggle and balance my training and college work.

If there was one bit of advice you’d give to someone who wanted to get into wrestling, what would it be?

Don’t give up, carry on going.

How important is it to you to succeed and make your family proud?

It’s important because my grandfather has told me that I can be even better than my grandfather and my father. They make me train hard so that I can achieve even more than they did, and I’ve had everything that they didn’t have.

All we can say for now is watch this space. Rowin is going to be our next sporting superstar straight out of Leicester.