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"Leading to Perform has helped in not making me feel alone": fostering community in high-performance sport

Published 5 September 2024

Rikki Bingham won a silver medal competing for her country at the World Archery Indoor Championships. And now she’s an Archery GB Olympic Performance Manager, she’s not finished adding more strings to her bow.

The former compound archer has embarked on a second career in managing and providing support for Archery GB across Olympic, Paralympic and Pathway levels, and is also an alumnus of UK Sport’s Leading to Perform development programme – an 18-month course designed to cultivate leaders in elite sporting roles.

And while Bingham possesses a wealth of experience in her own right, having coached across two Paralympic cycles after a successful professional career, she knows there’s always more to learn.

She said: “Leading to Perform has helped me by bringing in people in roles a number of us are striving to achieve, given the realities of what it takes to move upwards in leadership within sport and to be able to work with one another to help us develop some of those skills.

“It has been a fantastic opportunity that I’m so grateful for. It’s really helped me; they’ve been fantastic mentors and I’ll stay connected with them for a long time to come.

“Leading to Perform has helped in not making me feel alone. It’s been a successful cycle but also challenging. I’ve had a change in my roles and responsibilities.

“Archery's a small sport and you can feel alone in the pressure you have, and the programme has helped me to manage what I’m dealing with and to be able to take the athletes and para-athletes through a safe environment.

“The fact that UK Sport has put on this programme to help future leaders is phenomenal and I think anyone who gets the opportunity should take it with both hands.”

No stranger to picking up a bow herself, Bingham’s initial foray into the sport was as a compound archer, eventually going on to represent her country internationally and meeting and starting a family with her husband (James) along the way.

Retiring after the birth of her second child, Bingham then made the switch to coaching, working across the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic cycles before taking up her current role.

“I enjoyed two cycles in coaching - Rio as an assistant coach and Tokyo as a Paralympic lead coach - but I decided to go into a managerial role that enabled me to have a better work-life balance when the opportunity arose,” she added.

“Archery’s a sport I’ve been in all my life, as a competitor and coach to then now being an Olympic Performance Manager. It’s a sport I’m really passionate about and the job is so varied, what with it being a small sport.

“You just get to do so many different bits as part of your role and no day is the same. I enjoy travelling with the team.

“It’s great fun getting to see the world but also developing relationships with the athletes and coming into a fantastic environment on a daily basis and watching them transform and progress throughout their careers.”

Hear more from Rikki about her experiences in the video here.

Read more about Archery GB on their website.


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