Becoming a Delivery Site for the next academic year will allow us to further extend the holistic support available to our athletes and those competitors at institutions in and around London.
Zak Evans, Fitness and Performance Manager, King’s Sport Health
19 September 2019
King's Sport becomes new support hub for London's most talented athletes
International sport and athletic competition have long been of significant importance to the nation, and with competition becoming increasingly fierce, supporting British elite athletes has never been more crucial.
Over this summer alone we have seen the Birmingham Grand Prix for Athletics come to a close, the Ashes Test Cricket gripping the nation just finished too, and looking forward, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is approaching fast.
To support British elite, King’s Sport has strengthened its partnership with the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS), becoming one of its delivery sites. As an accredited TASS Delivery Site (TDS) for athletes already, this new element of the partnership will mean that services will not just be available to King’s students, but for any athlete in and around London wishing to use the training and support facilities offered by King’s Sport.
Zak Evans, King’s Sport Health, Fitness and Performance Manager, said that the TASS Dual Career Accreditation had cemented the university’s ambition to provide student athletes with the opportunity to perform at their best in their chosen academic study and sport.
Being one of 34 education institutions with TASS TDS status, King’s Sport is part of a national network which not only benefits elite athletes, but also King’s Sport staff who have access to development opportunities in their particular practitioner area of expertise .
The programme brings together other areas of professional services at King’s such as the Careers & Employability team to create a synergy between education and a culture of empowerment and personal development through sport.
King’s Sport also offers opportunities for athletes to study and train at the same time through TASS and is a proud supporter of Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Will Deary, Elsa Desmond and Meg Bowie among others. Olympic sprinter and former King’s student Dina Asher-Smith took the dual-career approach and TASS support during her studies, she is due to head to Tokyo as the reigning European 200m champion. Another shining example is Dame Katherine Grainger, Britain’s most decorated female Olympian and King’s alumna, who famously said: “I was a better athlete because I was a student and a better student because I was an athlete.”
The dual career accreditation is hugely important as it allows us to raise athlete awareness to ways in which they can develop their transferable skillset and enhance their employability to transition into a sustainable career post-graduation and sport.
Zak Evans
“We are very lucky to have such a role model student athlete in Dina. She is a huge ambassador for her sport and also for the university. The TASS and TDS schemes provide the holistic support and an environment for our athletes to thrive, so being able to extend our facilities and services to any athlete living or working in London working on their sporting ambitions is extremely exciting and crucial as we move into an Olympic year.”
King’s Sport continues to develop relationships across the university. Currently, the team work with the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine to provide co-curricular learning for students and athletes, as well as continuously improving the services on offer to athletes.