Tegan backing new initiative to find future Olympic and Paralympic athletes
POTENTIAL young athletes across the South West are being encouraged by aspiring Paralympian Tegan VincentCooke to get involved in a new UK wide initiative to find the Olympic and Paralympic athletes of the future.
Vincent-Cooke, a Bristol-based para-dressage rider and multiple national champion, is backing the ‘From Home 2 The Games’ campaign which was launched last Thursday at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The campaign marks the first time that UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport (EIS) are working together with Team GB, ParalympicsGB and 19 Olympic and Paralympic sports in the search for future stars.
From Home 2 The Games has been designed to engage and encourage young people from all communities in the UK to explore and try Olympic and Paralympic sports that they may never have thought about getting involved with before, and discover their untapped potential.
It is targeting 11 to 23 year olds who are sporting or physically active to participate in Olympic sport and 15 to 34 year olds with an impairment which makes them eligible to participate in Paralympic sport.
Vincent-Cooke is one of seven ‘From Home 2 The Games’ ambassadors who are backing the campaign and urging local young people to get involved.
She said: “I started riding when I was four years old and competing when I was eight or nine but it didn’t really click that I could take it further. It wasn’t until the London 2012 Paralympic Games, when I was in my mid-teens, and seeing people like me that I thought I could get there.
“The main reason why I didn’t see myself having a career in the sport from a young age was because there was no one out there like me that I could see.
“Now that I am working towards that goal, I do want to create a pathway so that people can join with me and enjoy the sport for what it is.”
Potential athletes can join From Home 2 The Games by completing three simple challenges and submitting their results at www.FromHome2TheGames.com. The challenges are:
For Olympic sport, potential athletes need to complete a 20m sprint, a broad jump and an open skill challenge.
For Paralympic sport, potential athletes need to complete a 20m push or sprint, a pick-up and throw and an open skill challenge.
As part of the process, potential athletes will be encouraged to upload their scores and fill in a short form about themselves and their sporting background.
Submissions will close at midnight on Monday, September 6 and then be reviewed by a team of expert sport scientists and coaches.
A select number of potential athletes will be invited to progress to the next stage of the process in the autumn, with sessions held to further explore their opportunity to be a future Olympian or Paralympian and the possibility a number will be selected to join National Governing Body development programmes.
Everyone who takes part in programme will be given guidance on how they can get involved with Olympic and Paralympic sport in their local areas and communities.