The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
FACT FILE DAVID FLORENCE
David Florence was born in Aberdeen on August 8, 1982. He attended Mile End Primary School before moving with his family to Edinburgh at the age of seven.
His father George was a former Scottish canoeing champion and his brother Fraser also competed internationally. His uncle, Angus Florence, also canoed for Scotland.
He lived on Wester Coates Avenue in Edinburgh between the ages of seven and 18 – a street away from a young Chris Hoy, who lived at Wester Coates Terrace.
Florence studied mathematical physics at the University of Nottingham and applied to be an astronaut after seeing a recruitment advert for the European Space Agency.
He is a double Olympic medallist having won silver in the C1 at Beijing in 2008 and silver again in London four years later in the C2 canoe slalom with partner Richard Hounslow.
His hobbies include snowboarding, wakeboarding, golf, tennis and learning foreign languages as well as playing the bagpipes and the guitar.
One of Florence's main achievements in his career to date was winning the World Cup title in the C1 in 2009. He also won gold in the C2 event at the 2012 European championships in Augsburg.
Following the Olympic Games in London in 2012 Florence won a further three gold medals at world championships in C1 and C2 in Prague in 2013 and again in C1 in London in 2015.