Playground to Podium - 01/07/2010

Playground to Podium is a national initiative designed to improve to identification, support and monitoring of young talented disabled athletes. The programme, which is led by Sport England (in partnership with the English Federation of Disability Sport), the Youth Sport Trust and Paralympics GB, will help to create a clear and professional disability sport pathway from school sport, through to club participation and onto elite performance.

The ultimate goal is to find swimmers to compete in future Paralympics.
Swimming is one of 6 sports included in the programme.

Each year pupils aged 7-14 will have access to Aquatics Identifying Ability Days, which are organised and delivered by School Sport Partnerships.

From these days any swimmers who are identified as having higher ability will be invited to County Athlete Assessment Days. These days are organised and delivered by ASA Playground to Podium Officers, and will take place in each county during June and July.

The Playground to Podium Officer for the North West Region is Lyndsey Hollands.
The purpose of the County Athlete Assessment Days are to identify and potentially talented swimmers. Anyone with potential talent will be signposted to high quality swimming opportunities, including local swimming clubs and regional programmes.

More information about Playground to Podium can be found at the British Swimming Website, www.swimming.org and also the Parasport website www.parasport.org.uk