Individuals, teams and outstanding projects within the Olympic and Paralympic high-performance community was celebrated this evening as UK Sport hosted its annual PLx awards ceremony.
Held virtually for the second year running, British Cycling were among the biggest winners from the third edition of the PLx awards with success on three fronts, including individual recognition for Dame Sarah Storey, Britain’s most successful Paralympian ever.
Double Olympic champion Helen Glover, British Gymnastics coach Scott Hann, Team GB, ParalympicsGB, British Swimming and the English Institute of Sport (EIS) were all also honoured for their particular efforts within the high-performance community over the last 12 months.
Launched for the first time in 2019, the PLx awards recognise those individuals, teams and sports who have made a significant contribution to the high-performance community, are achieving great things and having a special and positive impact across coaching, support services, innovation, collaborating and team working, and social impact.
The 2021 edition of the PLx awards was hosted by UK Sport Chair Dame Katherine Grainger and Paralympic bronze medallist and world champion Stef Reid as the great and good of the Olympic and Paralympic high-performance community were celebrated. The awards and winners are:
Biggest turnaround
Marcus Bloomfield, BMX supercross – British Cycling
The Olympic gold and silver won by Beth Shriever and Kye Whyte respectively were the first medals ever won by British BMXer’s at the Games. These breakthrough performances were supported by the Great Britain Cycling Team’s BMX Supercross team, led by coach Marcus Bloomfield, who designed training and preparation plans based on insight from previous less successful Olympic performances. Post-Tokyo Shriever also won global gold, becoming the first woman ever to hold both Olympic and world titles at the same time and further demonstrating the impact of the work done by Bloomfield and his team.
Marcus said; “It’s great to win the award, but it’s more than me leading that programme. I am fortunate enough to work with a group of great athletes and a solid group of staff behind me. It’s lovely to win this but it’s also very much a group effort to get those guys onto the podium. There’s a difference of being capable and actually delivering. Our conversations were different in the years leading up to Tokyo and we wanted more rounded athletes and good people, who could communicate well with others. That’s created a better package of athlete to go onto the start line and be confident enough in their own ability regardless of what they face on that race day”
Coach who has made a special impact
Scott Hann – British Gymnastics
Scott Hann has enjoyed a remarkable journey as a coach, first starting out as a volunteer to now being Director of Coaching at South Essex Gymnastics Club. He leads the artistic gymnastics programme and is personal coach to several elite gymnasts, including Max Whitlock. Hann first started coaching Max when he was 12 and has been instrumental in him becoming Britain’s most successful gymnast ever.
Scott said: “It makes me massively proud that I’ve had a positive impact on so many people because that really is what this is all about; the people. Putting the person first before the athlete is so important. The results are a bi-product of how the athlete is treated, these results have been incredible. I’m so thankful and I can’t believe I’m sitting here in front of so many inspirational people, it really does feel very special.”
Support staff or practitioner who has made a special impact
Greg Retter – Team GB
Tom Paulson – ParalympicsGB
Greg Retter and Tom Paulson led the performance services for Team GB and ParalympicsGB respectively in Tokyo but also played a hugely important role as covid liaison officers. They stepped into the unknown and were leaders amid significant uncertainty, having a significant impact on and creating and safe and successful Games environment for athletes and staff. As a direct result of their work and endeavour, no Team GB or ParalympicsGB athlete tested positive in Tokyo.
Greg said: “The pressure was always to ensure that athletes made it to the start line Covid free. The whole of the UK high performance system were behind us, from UK Sport through to the home country sport institutes, Team GB and ParalympicsGB. The time and effort that was put in by a massive number of people was huge.”
Tom said: “There was always a lack of information so all we could do was work from our principles, we wanted to protect performance and we wanted to keep people safe, also giving the athletes the best experience possible. It felt like we were constantly working our way through the gap of what we did know and what we didn’t know, as well as what we needed to find out”
Innovation award
The EIS and British Cycling
Together the teams at the EIS and British Cycling have rewritten the rules in the design and engineering of a bike. This was demonstrated at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo as Great Britain enjoyed huge success with the partnership credited for a paradigm shift in cycling engineering and performance.
Adam & Oliver said: “We had five years instead of four which helped. The team that goes into making a bike is massive. It’s knowing who is going to do what and when they’re going to do it. Microsoft Teams helped make things happen, as did constant talking and communication.”
Collaboration and team working
Tokyo Race Programme project – British Swimming
British Swimming addressed early the challenges of non-traditional morning finals at the Olympics and their Tokyo Race Programme project undoubtedly contributed to their most successful Games in over a century. They reframed the challenge as an opportunity rather than a problem with their aim of being the best prepared nation clearly leading to results.
Richard Chester, British Swimming, said: “The first thing that we did was sit back and realise this was going to be a really big project. Very quickly we started interviewing and started to refine, everyone got incredibly excited by it. There was an opportunity not just to influence Tokyo, but to influence a legacy in how we prepare our athletes for race performance.
Social Impact
Dame Sarah Storey – British Cycling
On the track and road Dame Sarah Storey is Britain’s most successful Paralympian ever, her efforts in Tokyo assuring her of that. However during the cycle she made a significant contribution to and impact on society. Her activities include being an Active Travel Commissioner for Sheffield City Region, campaigning via social media for changes to driving and road safety and continuing to champion women and girls in sport.
Sarah said: "Just one road death for me is one too many and we need to make sure that we all take that responsibility on and pledge to pass the positivity on, we can all play our part in improving safety on the roads and passing it down to future road use generations. The highway code is being updated to make it more obvious that is all our responsibility on the road, a reminder we must educate future road users.”
Spirit of high performance
Helen Glover – British Rowing
Helen Glover has achieved everything there to achieve in rowing but embarked on a completely new challenge for the Tokyo Olympic Games. After a four-year break where she and her husband Steve welcomed three children into their family, Glover returned to the sport. Along with Polly Swann, she regained her European title and would finish fourth in Tokyo, becoming the first ever British female rower to compete at the Games after motherhood.
Helen said: "When I stepped away from my career, I really felt disconnected from it. Lockdown and seeing my little girl made me want to go back and show you can be a mother amongst other things. If I can just say to one person that parenthood isn’t the end, it could just be the beginning, then that for me is a big win. There’s so much in life that’s more important than sport, yet I still choose it and love it. Polly (Swann, Helen's rowing partner in Tokyo) and I were choosing to be at the start line in Tokyo in spite of everything”
Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair at UK Sport, said: “With a summer involving the huge successes of Team GB and ParalympicsGB at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, this year’s PLx awards were extremely competitive. Athletes and sports were trailblazers in Tokyo and I send my congratulations to everyone nominated and a special mention for all of the winners.
“The award winners this year represent the very best from across the entire high-performance community, from inspirational athletes and coaches to innovators and practitioners working tirelessly behind the scenes. It’s important we recognise the successes of the high-performance community as these PLx awards continue to go from strength to strength.”
PLx this year is being split across two dates either side of the new year. It serves as a learning and development event offering the opportunity for the high-performance community to come together to share insights, knowledge and hear from experts from inside and outside the sports sector through a series of engaging sessions and keynote speeches.