Gold Young Sports Ambassadors Conference - News - Southend West SSP

Gold Young Sports Ambassadors Conference

As one of the two Gold Young Sports Ambassadors for Southend West, I was invited to attend a conference at the Brit Oval on Tuesday 21st September.

Upon arriving and registering in the main conference room, we were given exclusive Adidas kit and booklets to help us plan for the future, and were introduced to the scheme by the Youth Sport Trust and Olympian, Christine Ohuruogu.

The Gold Young Ambassadors were then split up into ‘Olympic host countries’, and I was put in Barcelona, before each team took to their own smaller conference room and was appointed their own Olympian or Paralympian to guide them through the day. I was put with another 20 or so Ambassadors to meet Tim Prendergast; Paralympic 1500m Gold Medal winner at Athens 2004.

The rest of the morning was spent with Tim talking us through the 2012 Olympic values, and teaching us what Young Ambassadors was all about; promoting the Olympics and sports within schools and raising young people’s awareness about what the Olympics will bring to our country.

After a hearty lunch, we returned to our team rooms to work on the ‘how’ part of the scheme, where I got together with the other Young Ambassador for Southend, Henry Madell from WHSB, to begin planning ways on how we could achieve this awareness and bring together out community through sport. The day ended with each team reconvening in the main conference centre and performing a pre-rehearsed dance to represent ‘Young Ambassadors’.

Unfortunately we didn’t win the best dance award, but I met a lot of brilliant people throughout the day and felt truly inspired by the athletes that spoke to us, and answered our questions. Tim, especially, was an inspiration to me; he is 95% blind, yet fought against all the odds against him to achieve his dream. The day showed me how every one of us can be role models and inspirations to younger people. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, and have gained plenty of ideas on how to promote 2012 in the area, and look forward to being at the centre of the action in the years to come.

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