Yasmin and Scarlett in action at the Games [Team GB]

A HEADTEACHER is brimming with pride after a former pupil fought back from serious injury to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

St Marylebone CofE Girls head Kat Pugh said Scarlett Mew Jensen had overcome “significant emotional and physical obstacles” on her journey to diving glory on Saturday.

The 22-year-old had looked set to miss the Games in Paris after fracturing her back just three months ago.

But Scarlett and her friend Yasmin Harper won bronze in a nail-biting synchronised springboard contest. It was the first medal for any British woman diver in 64 years and it came after the tragic death of their former coach.

Ms Pugh told Extra: “We are so so proud of Scarlett. It was really moving to see her and Yasmin win the first Team GB medal of the Paris Olympics. Her dedication and resil-ience throughout her time at St Mary-lebone were evident to us daily. She was training early every morning and yet she turned up with a smile at school, and this was through her GCSEs and A-levels too. She never made excuses for herself and always appreciated every opportunity.

“We are so proud that all those years of training and effort, overcoming significant emotional and physical obstacles, has led to this brilliant Olympian achievement.

Yasmin Harper, left, and Scarlett Mew Jensen won Team GB’s first medals of the 2024 Games in the Women’s Synchronised 3m Springboard event [Team GB]

“At St Marylebone we were really proud to support and hold her through her studies and personal growth, making sure she balanced maths and sciences with the arts, dance and PE, helping her develop her positive attitude and resilience, and providing her with a community who believed in the whole Scarlett, not just the swimmer and diver.”

Scarlett thought they had missed out on the medals, but an unexpected slip up by an Australian pair saw the Brits scoop third place against the odds.

She said: “I’m very much lost for words. A month ago I didn’t know I was going to be able to be here with a partial back fracture, so to be up on the boards and to come away with this medal I just can’t imagine anything better.”

The diving pair’s former coach Dave Jenkins had passed away in October 2021, aged just 31, after coaching Team GB’s Olympic squad in Tokyo 2020.

Scarlett said: “I said to Yas when we found out we had the bronze all I was thinking about was Dave. I know he would be so proud of us to be Olympic medalists and I want to thank him as I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for him.”

The Olympian has come a long way since her time at St Marylebone CofE, which she attended from 2013 to 2020.

She got into the school with a prestigious dance scholarship.