Media release - August 18 2004

Road to 2010 Olympic gold starts here - voice of the recreation industry outlines the key steps to success.

The Olympics is less than a week old and the backlash against Team GB is already underway. To improve our medal chances in time for 2012 the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management (ISRM) is urging a change in the way our Olympians of tomorrow are identified and developed.

Ralph Riley, ISRM chief executive said "The problem is we don't have the strength in depth of countries like Australia and the United States. This Olympics sees Britain's smallest track and field team since Moscow 1980. A number of changes need to be made to improve things for the 2012 games. If we don't then the lack of medals will be even harder to take on home soil."

According to the ISRM here is what needs to be done:

Increase the size of the base and the pyramid can be higher -We need to increase the number of people taking part in all sports to increase the quality of the elite athletes. To do this we need to make access and availability of sport as easy as possible for everyone. An increased pool of athletes creates more opportunities for talent to be identified and developed
Physical literacy is the key - Primary school pupils need to be taught agility, balance, coordination, speed and how to run, throw, jump, etc. If you teach these basics then children get the opportunity to excel at several sports. For example, Olympic 200m silver medal holder Darren Campbell was a professional footballer before switching to athletics.
Don't specialize too early - Children need to take part in a variety of sports. We then need to identify children with talent, and develop their skills to exploit this talent to enable the long term development of the individual athlete, not short term success of teams or clubs. Disturbingly this Olympics sees no British representatives in volleyball, basketball, handball and table tennis. These sports can be played in almost any school gym or sports hall at very little cost.

Riley continued : "There is no quick fix it can take 12 to 13 years to develop an athlete. In England we have long term athlete development model and some physical literacy in schools but to be successful we need a long term strategy embedded in all our sporting systems public and voluntary with the resources to ensure it is delivered. For example, in New Zealand they are already planning for the 2016 Olympics from now with a strategy for talent development called Linking Promise to the Podium. New Zealand realises that due to the countries population size the pool of talented athletes is small. Developing the abilities of all children will result in a more athletically capable and more sports-literate population."

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For more information, please contact:

Johnny Sollitt-Davis / Joanna Masson
Octopus Communications for ISRM
01753 672755
isrm@octopuscomms.net

About ISRM

The Institute of Sport and Recreation Management is the national professional body for sport and recreation management in the UK. Founded in 1921, the institute has a membership of 2,500 qualified sport and recreation specialists employed at all levels in the industry from front line managers to heads of companies, organizations and local authority departments. Its key objective is to provide opportunities for participation in sport and other recreational activities to benefit public health. More information is available at www.isrm.co.uk.