STAR
‘Unsung heroes’ is an often overused phrase these days. But it’s fair to say that the talents behind Wales’ most gifted athletes thoroughly deserve that mantle. Simon Grant reminds us that behind every star is a veritable army of dedicated coaches and volunteers who have helped them to the top.
That’s exactly the message that Sport Wales is hitting home with its Behind Every Star campaign to celebrate and recognise coaches and volunteers of all levels and abilities across Wales, and to inspire more people to lend a hand at their local sports clubs.
Launched in May, the campaign highlights eleven of Wales’ current sporting superstars, in a travelling photographic exhibition, to showcase the impact that coaches and volunteers have had on the careers of our sporting elite.
From gold medal winning Olympians and Paralympians to Welsh rugby and football stars; esteemed Cool Cymru
photographer Terry Morris has travelled the breadth of Wales and even across the border to capture the collection of striking black and white images. The likes of British Lion and Wales rugby player Jamie Roberts and World and Paralympic Champion swimmer Liz Johnson have been captured in action with one of their most infl uential coaches to date.
Huw Jones, Chief Executive of Sport Wales explains the reasoning behind the campaign:
“We’re a very proud sporting nation in Wales and we have an awful lot of individuals who coach and volunteer in their own time. Firstly, we want to celebrate that, we want to say thank you to those individuals, whether they are at the highest level or those who work with grassroots sport.
“But of course, it’s not good enough just to celebrate what we already do. We want to see more people taking part because if we’re going to get every child hooked on sport in Wales we need an awful lot more coaches and volunteers than we have at the moment.”
Paralympic gold-medallist swimmer, Liz Johnson, features in a portrait with Billy Pye - Head Coach at the British Disability High Performance Centre based at the Wales National Pool in Swansea.
Johnson says: “I think this campaign is raising awareness of the impact that the coaches and the volunteers have on getting athletes onto the podium. People always see us with medals around our necks but I don’t think they realise the infl uence that Billy and other volunteers and coaches have on sporting careers like mine. Hopefully highlighting that through this campaign will get more people interested and wanting to help.”
Come September a focussed effort will be made to recruit those members of the public that have witnessed the exhibition, or read about the campaign in their local paper and felt inspired. TV advertising will hit the homes of Wales - all promoting a dedicated phone-line and website for people to register their interest - supported by activity on social networking sites such as Facebook, in a bid to attract as many people as possible to the campaign.
issue12twothousand&ten sportingwales
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