SIR Roger Bannister was among the famous faces who celebrated Oxford University's proud Olympic history.

The university hosted an event on Thursday attended by dozens of Olympians and Paralympians who once studied there, including 15 people who competed in Rio de Janeiro last summer.

Over the years 283 Oxford graduates have competed at Olympic and Paralympic games, winning 167 medals including 84 golds.

Sir Roger, best known for becoming the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes, competed in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland but did not win a medal.

Among those who joined him at the event were David Hemery, winner of the 400m hurdles at the 1968 Olympics and Peter Reed, who has three gold medals in rowing events from the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

A sporting panel discussing was chaired by Dr Hemery, an alumnus of St Catherine's College.

It featured Grace Clough, a current Master's student in sociology at Kellogg College and a 2016 Paralympic gold medallist in rowing, as well as Dan Fox who studied at St Edmund Hall and represented Team GB in hockey in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Other panelists included Sophia Saller, a current mathematics student who was world under-23 triathlon champion in 2014.

The event at the Weston Library saw Oxford's past success at the Olympics and Paralympics celebrated as well as looking forward to potential achievements by current students at the Tokyo summer games in 2020.

Those who attended included both British and non-British competitors, such as Dr Nick Howarth who represented Australia in athletics in Sydney 2000.

Other medallists in attendance were Zoe de Toledo and Dr Zoe Lee, who win silver in the women's rowing eight in Rio and Colin Smith, who won silver in the same event in Beijing in 2008.

Olivier Siegelaar, who won bronze in the men's rowing eight in Rio 2016 and Jonny Searle, who won gold in rowing coxed pairs in Barcelona in 1992 and bronze in the same event in Atlanta in 1996 also attended.

Oxford's first female Olympian, Barbara Slater, was another guest.

She competed in gymnastics in Montreal in 1976.

All those in attendance were welcomed by the university's vice chancellor Professor Louise Richardson and event sponsor Aron Ping D'Souza.