Lee Valley hosted its second annual GLL Sports Foundation (GSF) Celebration Event at Lee Valley White Water Centre. This is the second group of talented athletes to be supported by the Foundation which has seen athletes from as young as seven being supported throughout 2024, with the oldest award recipient being 85, showing that sporting talent has no boundaries!
For over 15 years, GSF has continued to be at the forefront of developing local young athletic talent with an impressive 28,146 awards totalling £15.386m having been made since 2008 across 117 different sports. With a national fund of £1.295m consisting of financial bursaries, training and access memberships, physiotherapy and more, the money is used to support talented athletes with the cost of preparing for and participating in national and international competitions ranging from Tug of War to the 2024 Paris Games.
This year, there were a confirmed 53 athlete awards in Lee Valley as part of the largest independent athlete support programme in the UK and included three who have been selected to go to Paris later this month in Kimberly Woods (Kayak Cross) Joe Clarke (Kayak Cross) and Georgia Bell (Athletics,1500m). Shaun Dawson, CEO of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority was delighted to have been invited and spoke to the athletes in attendance about the continued improvements to Lee Valley venues with the aim of helping them to achieve their ambitions of becoming and remaining elite level athletes.
The evening finished with a Question and Answer session with aforementioned Paris Olympic hopeful Kimberly Woods and Nikita Setchell, who is the World No1 ranked Under 23 in the Kayak Cross. They both spoke of their journeys into the sport and the support of friends and family alongside the additional support of the GLL Sport Foundation in the continuation of their careers.
Speaking about the foundation, GSF Patron Sally Gunnell OBE said: “Young athletes need the support of organisations like the GLL Sport Foundation to follow their dreams and achieve their ambitious goals in competitive sport.”
GLL’s research shows that many talented athletes struggle to realise their dreams of sporting glory due to rising costs of equipment, training, physiotherapy, travel and nutrition. For them, a GSF Award can be the lifeline to staying in training and meeting their potential. The majority of GSF athletes are under 21 and 87% receive no other form of funding and so nights like this where their achievements can be celebrated are that much more important and highlight the significance of the work that the GLL Sports Foundation does for these talented athletes every year.
