With under two years to go to the London Games, UK Sport has announced that it is increasing the scope of its ‘Mission’ process – which oversees performance progress and advises on challenges facing sports and athletes - to cover both plans for the Winter Games in Sochi 2014 and early thinking for the next Summer Games in Rio 2016. This extension of responsibility will see the existing expert Panels – one for Olympic and one for Paralympic sport – merged into one, with an increase in membership to cover the additional expertise required.
“Mission 2012 has changed the way we work with sports – but equally fundamentally, the way in which we deliver support to the high performance community”, said Peter Keen, UK Sport’s Director of Performance. “With this approach maturing, it is a good time to both increase the coverage of the process by extending it to the Winter sports we support, but also encourage the sports already part of the Mission to think about their plans for Rio.”
UK Sport has effectively dissolved the existing Mission 2012 Panels to create a new extended Panel and has embarked on the process of seeking a minimum of 6 members from the high-performance community and beyond. With the Panel needing to identify world leading practice within sports and respond to challenges facing the system, the recruitment of members with very specific expertise is critical. In its advertisement for Panel Members placed on its web site, UK Sport has indicated that it is particularly seeking individuals with expertise in the following areas:
- Executive Management of sustained World Class success (CEO or PD level)
- Coaching of sustained World Class success with teams and individuals
- Operational experience at a minimum of 5 Major Multi-Sport events
- Delivery and management of high level Sport Science/Sport Medicine support for at least 10 years
- 10 years operational experience at World Class level in Paralympic Sport
- 10 years operational experience at World Class level in Winter Sport
- Winning medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games
“Our existing Panels have served us extremely well, but after three years of running the Mission 2012 process we know a lot more about the precise nature of insight that makes a difference when looking for ways to identify and tackle the themes that are emerging across sports – whether Olympic or Paralympic, summer or winter”, added Keen. “Now that we have fully aligned all our sporting investments and judge each sport on its potential to deliver success regardless of whether they are competing on water, grass or ice, it is important that our Mission Panel can have the same flexibility.”
UK Sport has asked for ‘letters of interest’ from individuals who meet the levels of expertise being sought – including the former Olympic and Paralympic Panel members - with a closing date for applications of 7 January, 2011.
The new Panel’s first meeting will take place in March 2011.
Full details can be found at www.uksport.gov.uk/jobs/.