Grainger Joins Girls4gold Campaign
London 2012 Olympic gold medallist Katherine Grainger is amongst the sportswomen who are backing the latest Girls4Gold talent identification programme.
Girls4Gold aims to recruit athletes who want to fulfil their Olympic or Paralympic ambitions. The first in what will be a series of Girls4Gold campaigns is Girls4Gold: Canoeing which has been launched by GB Canoeing in conjunction with UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport. The aim is to find athletes who have what it takes to transfer into a new sport and compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Girls4Gold: Canoeing is aimed at athletic females aged 15-17 who compete at regional standard and motivated, high-performing women aged 18-25 who compete at national standard, in any sport, and believe they can achieve Olympic success.
Grainger said of her start in sport and the campaign: ‘I completely fell into rowing, it was never the plan, I never thought it was the sport for me; I didn’t even start until I went to University but I just loved the challenge of it. If you’re thinking about signing up for Girls4Gold, or hearing about it has sparked something inside you and there’s a little bit of hunger there, just go for it.’
GB Canoeing performance director John Anderson commented on the launch of Girls4Gold: Canoeing: ‘Whilst we have some outstandingly talented women already in our sport, as we look beyond Rio and onto Tokyo we want to build greater strength and depth in our talent pool so we can challenge for more medals in more events by 2020. Our aspiration is to be the number one Olympic and Paralympic canoeing nation by 2020 so there is no better time to get involved with Sprint Canoeing.’
Natalie Dunman, head of Performance Pathways at UK Sport, said: ‘Girls4Gold is an ambitious programme to fast track outstanding female talent in to Olympic and Paralympic sport beginning with canoeing. We are looking for female athletes who have the drive and ambition to fulfil their sporting potential with the ultimate aim of becoming part of a World Class Programme and achieving medals on the international stage.’
