UK Sport

We use cookies to track and analyse visitors to our website

These cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are necessary for our website to function and cannot be switched off.
These cookies gather information to understand how visitors interact with the website, such as how many people are using our website of which pages are popular to help us improve user experience. Switching off these cookies will mean that we cannot gather information to improve the user experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by a third party provider whose services we have added to our website. Switching off these cookies mean that areas of our website cannot work properly.

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site.

For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.

Skip navigation
the national lottery
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram LinkedIn
  • About us
    • Our Directors Team
    • Our Board
    • Panels
    • Strategic Plan 2021-31
    • Our partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact us
    • Media centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Talent identification
    • Coaching
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Leadership, development & governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • Para-Rowing
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Annual reports
    • Board minutes
    • British Cycling independent review
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports
    • Privacy policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment framework
    • The Whyte Review
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and open data
    • Welsh language scheme
  • Jobs in sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Jobs in sport
    • Submit a job
  • About us
    • Our Directors Team
    • Our Board
    • Panels
    • Strategic Plan 2021-31
    • Our partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact us
    • Media centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Talent identification
    • Coaching
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Leadership, development & governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • Para-Rowing
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Annual reports
    • Board minutes
    • British Cycling independent review
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports
    • Privacy policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment framework
    • The Whyte Review
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and open data
    • Welsh language scheme
  • Jobs in sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Jobs in sport
    • Submit a job
Press Enter to Search
News

Wheelchair basketball women's team collaborate with a hockey Olympian

Published 8 March 2020

Meet Great Britain’s wheelchair basketball Performance Director, Jayne Ellis. Jayne joined wheelchair basketball in November 2018 after working with both the British Cycling and GB Taekwondo teams, and previously leading the delivery of the EIS Paralympic Talent Strategy.

“My role is to help get this amazing team into the right mindset for what’s about to come. The focus has been on what their needs are and we’re set up as a team around their needs at this time.”

Great Britain’s women’s team have a fierce rivalry with the Netherlands and ahead of the Europeans last year, Jayne and her team wanted to ensure the GB side were as prepared as possible before the tournament.

“Going into the Europeans, we knew we had to face the Dutch who are a great nation. We got thinking, who can we bring in to help us with this specific need?

“Kindly, the captain of the women’s Great Britain hockey gold medal winning team from the Rio Olympic Games, Kate Richardson-Walsh, came in to help us. She was just awesome.

“What she brought was an insight and context around performance that we don’t have and don’t see. That addition into our team, into what we are trying to achieve and learning from their experience and bringing that through, money can’t buy that type of connection.

“She really helped us learn about ourselves, about the team and about how we approach that competition. That is just one of the innovative things we’ve put in place to really understand the needs of the team and set ourselves up.”

For those who remember that August evening when the hockey women won gold, the crowd was a sea of Dutch orange, who were favourites to take home the medal. However, the GB women had worked hard for years to create their team, to ensure they played their final knowing  that many of them had beaten this Dutch side a year earlier in the final at the Europeans as England.

“Kate helped us explore the language we use around the narrative we tell ourselves and the story about the competition, how important that language is to the team. She really did bring something extra to the table.”

Athlete Kayla Bell found it refreshing hearing from Kate and about her team’s experiences in Rio. “It was nice to hear from a team sport perspective. When you deal with twelve people, it can be challenging to make sure everyone is happy and working together. So coming from someone in a team sport, it really helped us know how to create a one-team environment.”

Jayne beams with pride as she speaks passionately about how her GB wheelchair basketball athletes continue to inspire each other and the public.

“Every day I come into work, these lot inspire me; I work for them. They are exceptional. They play themselves down, but all our athletes do. The more people see them, the more they can inspire that little girl at home who is having a challenging time, but then she sees these ladies and says: ‘I can do that.’ That’s what it’s all about.”

The Great Britain team have recently come back from Tokyo where they placed second in the Osaka Cup, bowing down to Canada in the final. The team have qualified a spot at the Tokyo Paralympics and are training hard over the next few months to ensure they are on the podium this summer. Follow their journey to Tokyo here. 

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
News
five athletes sat on stage in mid disussion
International Relations Seminar 2023
21 March 2023
Eilish crossing the line celebrating with her arms in the air
New research shows British public support athletes speaking out and driving social change
8 March 2023
Female wheelchair basketball player lines up a shot at the hoop.
UK Sport makes first awards from NGB Development Fund to support organisational health
22 February 2023
Sport jobs in the UK
Find & advertise UK based sports jobs here
Read more
Funding Partners
  • DCMS
  • TNL partners
Strategic Partners
  • British Olympic Association
  • Paralympics GB
  • english institute of sport logo
  • Sport England
  • Sport Northern Ireland
  • Sport Wales
  • Sport Scotland
Sitelogo
Sitemap
  • Homepage
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
  • Resources
  • Jobs in sport
  • UK Sport editorial policy
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • Website terms
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies policy
  • FAQs
Contact
UK Sport
6th Floor
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU
E: info@uksport.gov.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7211 5100
Follow us
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram LinkedIn

© Copyright UK Sport 2023