Many of the world’s elite athletes have expressed their want to compete at Glasgow 2014
Games. At the time the Paralympic movement was very much emerging and was still defining itself. By that I mean that it was still figuring out whether it was a disability movement or a sports organisation. It was a very interesting time and a very defining time for me personally as the message we decided to go with was that if we truly believe that we are an elite sport movement, then the athletes themselves need to believe they are part of an elite sports programme.
What brought you to Glasgow? Following the Atlanta Games, in 1997, I started to do some work for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and two years later (in 1999) I was appointed the sports director of IPC. That involved a move to Bonn, Germany where the new HQ for the organisation was being established – in fact I was one of the first permanent IPC staff members. I ended up staying there for 11 years and worked at a number of Paralympic Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships. After the 2008 Beijing Games I decid-
ed to try something new and Glasgow particularly appealed to me. It was the ambition of the city and the way it was at the crossroads of where the Com- monwealth movement was – and the
Issue 4 2013 © cybertrek 2013
We’ve worked very closely with the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and various client groups to define the service levels to make sure we get it just right for the scope and scale of a Commonwealth Games. Also, at the heart of our plans is the aim to be a ‘youthful Games’. The Commonwealth has 2.3 billion
citizens, of which 1.2 billion are young people under the age of 24. So in terms of the Commonwealth, we’ve looked to not only take that inspiration and excitement but take it to another level and really be empowering to young people to “be the Commonwealth” and “be the Games”. The official tartan of the Games
The Games’ official mascot, Clyde, with Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams
real opportunity to do a Games in a completely different way.
How would you describe the Glasgow games? We want to see Glasgow 2014 as the ‘people’s games’. As part of that ap- proach we’ve been careful not to try and be something we’re not. We want to get the scale of things right – we’re not the Olympic Games, after all.
was designed by a pupil at the local Shawlands Academy, while the official mascot – Clyde – was the idea of a 12-year-old schoolgirl called Beth Gilmour from Cumbernault. These are stories which have already made Commonwealth Games history and are inspiring for people of all ages. The youthfulness runs across all as-
pects of the Games – for example the young volunteers we’ve enlisted, the young workforce initiatives we’ve put in place with the construction projects and the apprentices we’ve recruited as part of the workforce. We have young people delivering these Games.
Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84