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Talent Identification & Development

Talent Identification, Confirmation and 
Development – finding Britain's future
Olympic and Paralympic champions

The Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to the UK in 2012 has presented us with a once in a generation opportunity to revolutionise our high performance sporting system. With the world of elite sport becoming increasingly more competitive, the need to be proactive in unearthing talented individuals with the potential to represent Great Britain and succeed on the world stage in 2012 and beyond, whilst also ensuring talent within the system is nurtured, has never been greater.

The UK Talent Team is a working collaboration between UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport with the remit of supporting the National Governing Bodies of targeted Olympic and Paralympic sports to identify, confirm and develop talented athletes.

• Talent Identification

• Talent Confirmation

• Talent Development

• Talent Transfer

Since its inception in 2006, the UK Talent Team has already made an impact on the high performance landscape. To date, over 7,000 individuals from the Great British public have applied to take part in talent assessment events as part of various technical frontline solutions designed to identify athletes with elite sporting potential. As a result, over 50 athletes new to the high performance system are now on Olympic and Paralympic development programmes, working towards success in London 2012, Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and beyond. Whilst striving for their own success, these athletes are also playing a vital role in exerting upward pressure on those already at the top of their sport, and increasing the strength and depth of the world class talent pool within the British high performance system. The programmes have already produced 54 international medalists (at senior and junior level) including 8 World Championship, 3 European Championship, 9 World Cup medals, the greatest achievement being a silver medal won by GB Rowing’s Helen Glover at the World Championships in 2010. Helen’s talent was discovered via the Sporting Giants campaign launched in 2007 and her World silver medal achieved less than four years after she first stepped into a rowing boat.

The team have also pioneered ground breaking talent transfer initiatives, including Pitch2Podium and Fighting Chance, offering athletes an opportunity to switch their existing skills and athletic abilities into Olympic sports. These potential Olympic athletes may otherwise have been lost to elite British sport completely.

The team also continue to work closely with targeted Olympic and Paralympic summer and winter sports to provide education programmes to develop the skills and expertise of the coaching and sport science workforce in the practice of talent identification, confirmation and development. All of this work is informed by in depth benchmarking, which assesses the effectiveness of the sports’ world class talent identification and development pathways. In addition the team is working with world leading experts to initiate applied research into practice to further enhance our understanding of this complex discipline.

The inspiration of the home Games in 2012 has been a huge catalyst for this work, but the legacy will be an efficient and more prolific talent identification and development system throughout the UK for years to come; ensuring the best athletes are discovered and nurtured within a well structured development programme, providing them with the best chance of success in a sport they are naturally predisposed for, and ultimately increasing Great Britain’s medal chances on the world stage in future.

Find out more about current opportunities to discover your elite sporting potential. You can also find out what it's like to take part in a talent identification and development programme by reading our talent ambassador case studies. You can also read more about past campaigns run by the UK Talent Team.

 

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