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I have had the privilege of working with the Manx charity Sport Aid that is responsible for the Talent Pathway of athletes for over 4 years now and all because of a ‘sliding door’ moment. As a trustee of SportsAid which also works on the Talent Pathway in sport in the UK, I’d established a tenuous connection on LinkedIn with Dr Richard Sille the Isle of Man Sport Aid (IOMSA) psychologist. The connection had been dormant for a couple of years, in fact I didn’t remember it all until in lockdown August 2020, when Richard Sille sent me an email; ‘I haven’t forgotten about you. Can we have a chat?’ he asked.

That conversation led to me chairing a steering committee that wrote a mental health strategy for the Talent Pathway. The reason why that strategy is still being delivered today was because all the diverse stakeholders that were represented on the committee – parents, current and former athletes, coaches, sports science etc were given an equal voice and felt they had genuinely collaborated for the benefit of the athlete community. The key ingredient was that all these people were from the island. They created the strategy, I wrote it.   

I have written before about the fact that this wasn’t pure client work requiring me to only apply my mind. IOMSA got the whole Braid “hearts and minds” input because of having Manx in my wiring thanks to my grandfather Billy Quirk being from Peel on the west coast.

It was during the time that I worked on the mental health strategy that Paul Jones joined the charity as Sports Performance Co-ordinator – effectively the Performance Director. What a gamechanger he has turned out to be. Under his leadership the charity has created a clear strategic direction, and I will always be grateful to Paul as he found a way to retain my involvement with the charity using my knowledge and experience and bringing to life my Manx heritage.

In 2029 the Island Games will return to the Isle of Man and that has become the focus for the core team of Paul, Rich, Trevor Christian (S&C lead) and Nikki Arthur (Student Athlete Development Co-Ordinator) and myself.

Our vision is to be the World’s Leading Athlete Talent Identification and Development Community by the time of the opening ceremony.

Two questions to consider:

  • Why not?
  • By whose definition?

To answer the first – there’s no reason ‘why not’ as we have been putting the building blocks in place. The answer to the second – the definition is ours! The reasons for this are because of

  1. the unique blend of the 27 sports we support – from gymnastics to superbike racing (thanks to the broad legacy that the TT brings to the island for sport in general and motorbiking particularly) and
  2. there is nowhere else that has the mix of Celtic history, fables and the sense and pride of being Manx from this community of past and present athletes. I feel this palpably not only when I’m amongst this group but, thanks to my heritage, in me too.

So, the mental health strategy became part of a bigger picture – a corner piece in the jigsaw if you will. The next task Paul set me was to establish an Athlete Advisory Board (AAB) for IOMSA. This was just a brilliant opportunity for me. I had done something similar when I rebuilt the governance structure of the British Athletes Commission and also helped others, such as the British Paralympic Association, set up their own athlete advisory boards.

I was appointed as temporary chair with Charlotte Atkinson the former Manx Commonwealth swimmer as the inaugural deputy. Charlotte was succeeded by Tara Donnelly the Commonwealth gymnast who has subsequently become chair with me retained as an advisor to the board. The AAB is made up of volunteer current and former athletes, those who are on island and others who are leading the Manx sporting diaspora continuing their careers and / or education elsewhere. The AAB has a genuine role to play both in informing and advising the IOMSA Committee and also acting as ‘elders’ and peers in the Talent Community.

A current piece of work that I absolutely love doing is recording conversations with Sport Aid athletes. We talk about their journeys; what it means to represent the Manx people and what they’ve learnt that they’ve needed to do in order to fulfil their ambitions. Of course, this knowledge is only of value when it is shared, so these podcasts are shown to the academy athletes and their parents at sessions that are run throughout the academic year. 

We are also creating a unique and dynamic culture amongst the athlete community that is encouraging them to look beyond their own sporting performance to help others by giving back in some way. We encourage the athletes to represent the Manx people wherever they are and in whatever they do. It is living the mantra of sport and more that will enable us to fulfil our mission and use the 2029 Island Games as the milestone from which we will kick on. Game on! 

CONTACT

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07949 533737

Address

DOCIAsport Ltd
Sussex Innovation Centre
University of Sussex
Science Park Square
Brighton
BN1 9SB

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