Tributes Paid As Conference Looks Forward

 

by James Skitt - 23.01.09

English Institute of Sport (EIS) Chairman Steve Cram and National Director Conor O’Shea both paid tribute to the organisations staff as they addressed delegates at the EIS National Conference in Sheffield this week.

Whilst the two day event focused on ‘the road ahead to 2012’ through a combination of keynote speeches and forums, Cram and O’Shea both took time to reflect on the achievements in Beijing, where 100% of gold and silver medallists and 80% of bronze medallists at the Olympic Games and 94% of all Paralympic athletes at the Games accessed EIS services as part of their Games preparations.

“These statistics say it all for me about the ongoing impact EIS support is having, working closely with sports” said O’Shea. “I would like to take this opportunity to say what a huge privilege it is to be working with such a dedicated and committed team of people” he added.

Cram insisted the EIS now holds a ‘position of strength and respect’ due to the successful impact of its sports science and sports medicine services.

“We are a success story and you are a part of that success” Cram said, “but we will not stand still” he added, alluding to the key theme of the conference, which focused on how the EIS can most effectively build on the foundations developed to date in order to ensure performances are maximised in London.

Highlights of the programme included keynote speeches from coach and high performance scientist Tony Lycholat, a tutor on the UK Sport Fast Track Practitioner Programme and a facilitator on UK Sport’s Mission 2012 project, who gave an insightful account of his recent former role as Head of Human Performance for the Honda Formula 1 team, whilst a second keynote combined presentations from RYA Olympic Manager for Skandia Team GBR Stephen Park OBE and GB Head Coach of Disability Swimming Lars Humer, who both led hugely successful Olympic and Paralympic squads in Beijing respectively and stressed the importance of learning from success as they gave detailed and honest accounts of their experiences within their respective sports.

In addition, National Squash Coach David Pearson was joined by retired former men’s squash player Peter Nicol to give a fascinating account of their player/coach relationship which spanned Nicol’s hugely successful career which saw him spend five years as world number one.

In addition to the keynotes, the conference also gave practitioners the opportunity to engage in discipline specific meetings, whilst a number of forums also provided insight into a range of key topics including innovation, project management, the psychology of injury, managing training and nutrition and on developing performance environments.

Check eis2win.co.uk for further articles related to the EIS National Conference in the coming weeks

Photography © Getty Images