Chef De Mission Appointed For Youth Games

Commonwealth Games England has announced that Louise Bell has been appointed as chef de mission, ahead of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.

Louise joined Commonwealth Games England in 2013 as project manager before becoming the operations director the following year. Louise was also heavily involved in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, which saw Team England top the medal table for the first time since 1986.

Ian Metcalfe, chairman of Commonwealth Games England said: “I am delighted that Louise has been appointed to the role of chef de mission. We ran an open and competitive recruitment process and felt that Louise was the most suitable candidate.”

Louise Bell commented: “I am extremely excited to take on this role, especially having just returned from Samoa where I was on a recce with our sports director, Don Parker.

“I have been heavily involved in Team England’s logistics and team operations for a few years now, and thoroughly enjoyed Glasgow 2014. My focus for the last six months has been the Commonwealth Youth Games and I am excited about the opportunity to work with our sports and our HQ team to create an environment that will give our young athletes the best chance of performing at their highest level, and to the best of their ability.”

Team England’s travelling delegation to Samoa will include approximately 90 team members, across eight sports (archery, athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, rugby sevens, squash, swimming, weightlifting), plus an HQ team of seven staff.

Between the HQ and sport team leaders, the management team travelling to Samoa has attended 35 Commonwealth Games, representing Team England in a number of capacities.

England has attended all four of the previous Commonwealth Youth Games, ranking within the top three nations in all of the Games.

Some of England’s highest profile sports stars have appeared at the Commonwealth Youth Games including Jessica Ennis-Hill, Beth Tweddle, Danny Cipriani, Zoe Smith and James DeGale.