WCPC13 Rod Carr: UK "sailing in uncharted waters" in search for further success
SubscribeRod Carr 25 November 2013
UK Sport’s 13th World Class Performance Conference gets underway in Manchester today and it’s my first as Chair since taking up the role from Baroness Sue Campbell.
As a high performance system, the UK is attempting to do what no host nation has ever achieved in recent history: win more medals at the next Olympic and Paralympic summer Games in Rio in 2016 - 66 and 121.
It’s an incredible challenge and demonstrates the high standards we set ourselves within the elite sport community, but it’s one we all believe is possible. Our determination to achieve even higher levels of success has been echoed by the commitment of record investment from the Government as well as The National Lottery.
We have seen some exceptional performances in this post-Olympic and Paralympic year, but for some it’s also proved tough; the scale of this challenge is really starting to hit home. That said, we have every confidence that we as a system can rise to the challenge, and we at UK Sport will continue to ensure we as a high performance system remain focussed, prioritised and best equipped to deliver this high level goal.
On the subject of rising to the challenge, for our winter sports, performing on the back of the London Games, all eyes will be on them like never before. British athletes in Sochi will be carrying the hopes and expectations of a nation like never before. We’re all right behind them in these final crucial months of preparation and I can’t wait for the Games to begin.
In our search for historic performances in Rio and Sochi, it’s fair to say we’re sailing in uncharted waters and so, fittingly, the chosen theme for this year’s conference is that of ‘Motion’. Over the three days of the Conference we’ll be exploring three elements of motion; energy, mass and acceleration.
By energy, we mean personal resource, so we’ll be encouraging our delegates to take this time to focus on themselves, their personal development, what they need to achieve greatness.
Mass is our capacity for greater expertise; we hope all the coaches and practitioners present seize this opportunity to learn from each other and share the gold dust they all have within their sports to make our system stronger.
Acceleration is about our ability to act; taking what we learn, the contacts we make and ideas that we foster, and acting on them, now.
My promise to our sports and athletes as I’ve taken the helm at UK Sport has been that I will do all I can to advocate for the importance of investing in elite sport beyond the current commitment to 2017.
What I ask of them between now and the Games is keep evolving, keep innovating and breaking new ground, and rising to our collective challenge every single day to create world class success stories for many years to come.