Sir Peter Heatly, Patron of Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) until his passing in 2015, has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF).
Nine members of Sir Peter’s family attended an ‘Honoree Enshrinement Dinner’ in Santa Clara, California on Saturday 29 October, hosted by Olympic gold medallist Agnes Kovacs of Hungary and multiple Olympic champion and world record holder John Naber of the USA.
Representing Great Britain at the 1948 London Olympics and winning five CommonwealthGamesmedals for Scotland including three gold in Diving between 1950 and 1958, Sir Peter had a distinguished career as an athlete culminating in his role as Scotland Team Captain at the1958Games.
In a lifelong association with Scotland’s Commonwealth Games team, he went on to fill rolesfromTeam Manager to Chef de Mission, attending every Games from 1950 through to the Glasgow 2014 Games.
Sir Peter was a central figure on the Organising Committee of the 1970 Commonwealth Games in E
dinburgh, serving as Chairman of CGS and later of the Commonwealth Games Federation. Appointed a CGF Life Vice President, Sir Peter was also Chairman of the Scottish Sports Council (now sportscotland) and an inaugural inductee of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. He was awardeda CBE in 1971 and knighted in 1990.
Heatly’s son Peter collected the ISHOF award on stage from 1964 Olympic champion SteveClark of USA. Following the induction ceremony he said:
“I had the honour, privilege and pleasure to receive the award on behalf of Dad as he was inducted posthumously as an ‘Honor Contributor’ into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
“President/CEO Bruce Wigo and his colleagues put on a very successful number of events over a memorable weekend. As a family we are very proud to have been there and it was a fitting tribute for Dad.”
Scottish performance directors of 15 sports on the Gold Coast 2018 programme joined Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) staff and representatives of the sportscotland Institue of Sport and Eventscotland on a visit to the Queensland city to experience venues first-hand and engage in collaborative discussion with the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) Organising Committee.
The group heard updates from GOLDOC Heads of Division responsible for areas including transport, sport, venues, and the Athlete Village and were invited to feed back before heading off on a tour of sporting venues and the Village site. All were impressed by the scale of investment being made into the facilities and the information gathered will inform Team Scotland’s general and sport specific preparations in the lead up to the Games. Potential sites for a Scotland House, a regular feature of the Team Scotland Games support programme, were also investigated.
The group also took the opportunity to visit potential holding camp facilities in Sunshine Coast to assess the feasibility of basing Team Scotland there to assist athlete and staff acclimatisation to Australian time zones, culture and temperature immediately before the Games. Possible training venues and the support services required were reviewed and, with the performance directors having experienced the venues first-hand, they are now leading discussion within their individual sports before a final decision is made on venue and operational requirements later this year.
“The welcome we received on both the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast was absolutely fantastic,” said CGS Games Team Operations Manager, Elinor Middlemiss. “The facilities being built for the Games are progressing well and the opportunity to hear updates and share information with the organising committee was very useful for everyone.
“The Team Scotland group were fantastic to work with. Having so many of the performance directors there gave the trip a real multi-sport feel and we thank the sports’ governing bodies and sportscotland for their commitment to ensuring Team Scotland travel to Gold Coast in 2018 with the best preparation possible.”
CGS CEO Jon Doig said “For each Games we have raised the bar in terms of our preparations and have got the results. We are looking for Gold Coast 2018 to be our best ever overseas Games, bettering those last in Australia in 2006. Ensuring we are fully aware of the situation on the ground and have bases that can support our athletes as soon as they arrive, as well as in the Gold Coast, is a critical part of our planning as we enter the last two years”
Queensland’s Gold Coast will host the 21st Commonwealth Games from 4 to 15 April 2018, the fifth time Australia has staged the Games and the first time it will be held in a regional Australian city.
The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games will be the first in the history of major multi-sport Games to have an equal number of medal events for men and women, with seven new women’s events and categories across Weightlifting, Boxing and Cycling confirmed on the sports programme.
Welcoming the announcement – made by GC2018 Chairman Peter Beattie AC at the Commonwealth Games Federation’s Sports Summit in front of sporting leaders from 71 nations and territories of the Commonwealth – President of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Louise Martin CBE, said:
“We’ve come a long way since the first Games in 1930, when women competed in justseven(or 12%of) medal events. The last edition of the Games in Glasgow created the highest-everpercentage of medal events for women (48.5%), placing true gender equality in medal opportunities at the Games clearly within reach.
“This is a significant step towards the realisation of the Commonwealth Games Federation’s vision for gender equality. I’m so proud that the CGF, GOLDOC, the Australian Commonwealth GamesAssociation and our International Federation colleagues have worked together to close the gender gap in time for Gold Coast 2018 – and present an equal number of medal moments for men and women for the first time ever at a major Games.”
The seven events added to the programme take the total number of medal events at Gold Coast 2018to a record-breaking 275. The additional events are:
One additional Women’s Weightlifting event (+90kg)
Three new Women’s Boxing events (45kg – 48kg, 54 – 57kg and +75kg); and
Three new Women’s Track Cycling events (Keirin, Team Sprint & Team Pursuit).
With Gold Coast 2018 also hosting the largest ever para-sport programme, organising committee GOLDOC hopes that this focus on inclusivity will prove to be one of the lasting legacies of the 2018 Games.
“This is such a positive move for all sports,” said two-time Commonwealth 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson, an Athlete Ambassador for the Gold Coast Games. “I am particularly proud that this initiative will commence in my home-town on the Gold Coast in 2018, to be held up as a shining example for other events to follow.”
Three Team Scotland athletes, including Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy, were among five sporting greats inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on 4 November.
Chris retired in 2013 having won six Olympic and 11 World cycling titles, as well as four medals over two Commonwealth Games for Team Scotland. He was inducted along with fellow Team Scotland athletes Commonwealth shooting Champion Shirley McIntosh MBE and multiple Paralympic swimming gold medallist Kenny Cairns MBE, as well as former Scotland and British & Irish Lions rugby coach Sir Ian McGeechan and double Olympic sailing champion Shirley Robertson.
Chris first competed for Team Scotland at the 2002 Manchester Games winning Gold and Bronze, a tally he would match four years later in Melbourne. Having taken Silver in the Team Sprint at Sydney 2000, he won his first Olympic gold medal in Athens 2004 in the Kilo – an event subsequently dropped from the programme for Beijing 2008. Undeterred, Chris switched his focus to the Keirin, Sprint, and Team Sprint and went on to win Gold in Beijing in all three events, the first Briton since 1908 to win three Gold medals in a single Olympic Games.
At the 2012 Olympic Games in London the Keirin and Team Sprint brought Olympic Golds five and six, cementing his place as both Britain’s most successful Olympian and the most successful Olympic male cyclist of all time.
Despite his incredible list of achievements Sir Chris described himself as “overwhelmed” at taking his place in the Hall of Fame alongside his own childhood heroes, adding:
“This is a huge privilege for me. I enjoyed every minute of my cycling career and still feel like the luckiest man in the world to have been given the opportunity to do what I love. But this award isn’t just for me. It’s for all of the people who have supported me along the way, allowed me to focus on my cycling and be the athlete I always wanted to be. Thank you all.
“I hope that by celebrating Scotland’s sporting history, we can demonstrate that with hard work and determination, the possibilities are endless. I know that sport gave me an incredible life and I hope that my story, and the stories of all of the inductees, will inspire more people to make sport a part of their lives.”
Fellow four-time Commonwealth medallist, shooter Shirley McIntosh, was also among the 2015 inductees. She began her Commonwealth Games career in style with Gold and Silver at the 1994 Games in Victoria, becoming the first Scottish woman ever to win a shooting Gold medal.
At the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games Shirley added another two bronze medals to take her medal tally to four and become Scotland’s most successful female Commonwealth athlete, a title she held until daughter Jennifer surpassed her achievement – Silver and Bronze at Glasgow 2014 taking her to five Commonwealth medals.
“I’m greatly honoured to have been included as an inductee to the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, and particularly in such illustrious company,” said Shirley.
“I’m very appreciative of the support sportscotland and the National Lottery have given to me, and my sport, over the years and this recognition is the icing on the cake of my sporting career.”
Selected for the Paralympic Games in 1984, Kenny Cairns MBE won an astonishing four golds and one silver, at the start of an incredible 20-year career in swimming. He represented Team Scotland in Manchester 2002.
“I’m both surprised and honoured to be considered for induction into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame,” said Kenny. “It’s not something that I was expecting at all.
“It’s great that we have this opportunity to recognise the achievements of Scotland’s sportsmen and women of the past, but for me it is also great opportunity to profile our sports and, hopefully, to inspire the next generation. That would be a fantastic legacy”
Congratulating the 2015 inductees, Louise Martin CBE, Chair of sportscotland and the Hall of Fame selection panel, said:
“Sporting fame is achieved over a lifetime of sweat and tears. And it is earned, not given. These five new inductees have certainly earned their place and I am delighted to welcome them into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.
“Scotland has a rich sporting heritage and our inductees have all been trailblazers who have demonstrated the determination and commitment required to excel in their chosen sports, and excel they did.
“Chris, Shirley, Kenny, Shirley and Ian have all done so much to make us proud as a nation, but also to inspire those who follow in their wake. Each and every one of them epitomise Scotland at its sporting best and is fully deserving of their place in the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.”
Established in 2002, the Hall of Fame celebrates Scotland’s sporting greats going back more than 200 years and is designed to inspire future generations. These five new additions bring the total number of inductees to 98, representing 32 sports. A collection of historic sporting memorabilia from the Hall’s archive is displayed at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
For more information on all previous inductees or to nominate potential new inductees, visit the website: www.sshf.co.uk
Up to 300 athletes and support staff from Team Scotland will call the Sunshine Coast home in the lead-up to the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Commonwealth Games Scotland announced today (25 October) that the team will base its official overseas preparation camp at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort, whilst the excellent sports facilities at University of the Sunshine Coast and other public and private venues will be used for training.
Athletes will stay for 48 hours up to three weeks before the Games begin on the Gold Coast on 4 April 2018.
Team Scotland Chef de Mission, Jon Doig OBE said the Sunshine Coast provides a great range of facilities and the ideal environment to ensure athletes will be well prepared for the Commonwealth Games, where the team will aim to have its most successful ever overseas Games.
“The key to Scotland’s success has always been in our planning and preparation and the Team Camp has always played a vital part in developing our strong team ethos and ensuring everyone is in the best possible shape for the Games.
“We have spent considerable time with all 18 sports identifying the best possible location for their specific needs, and for the vast majority the facilities and environment on the Sunshine Coast and at Twin Waters in particular, will undoubtedly provide the ideal home from home for theathletes as they adjust to the travel, climate, culture and the unique multi-sport environment of the Commonwealth Games.
“Some sports will come out requiring full training facilities, whilst others will be lookingfor rest and relaxation ahead of competition, so it’s about different things for different sports. However our priority is enabling them all to come through and acclimatise for the Games that will be held in a warm Australian Autumn when we are coming from a cold Scottish winter.”
Commonwealth Games Scotland Chairman, Paul Bush OBE added: “I am delig
hted that we have now signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sunshine Coast and we are excited about working closely with colleagues here and in Gold Coast to deliver our best ever overseas Commonwealth Games performance.”
Mayor Mark Jamieson said that hosting three international Commonwealth Games teams was a clear indication of the Sunshine Coast’s universal appeal as a major sporting and lifestyle destination.
“This is a tremendous honour for our region because Commonwealth Games Associations have an enormous amount riding on the decisions they make for their athletes and so a lot of time and resources go towards finding the best possible locations to base their athletes before such an important event as the Commonwealth Games. So for Scotland to choose to come here, like Wales and the Isle of Man, is a fantastic show of faith for the Sunshine Coast,” Mayor Jamieson said.
Novotel Twin Waters Resort General Manager Warwick Kahl said he and his staff were excited by the opportunity to host some of the Commonwealth’s premier athletes.
“To have Team Scotland choose to come to the Novotel Twin Waters Resort for such an important period in their Commonwealth Games preparations is an incredible honour for us,” Mr Kahl said.
“All of our professional and friendly staff are really looking forward to welcoming these amazing athletes and providing them with everything they need to be mentally and physically ready for the Commonwealth Games.”
The Team Scotland preparation camp on the Sunshine Coast is being supported by sportscotland as part of its overall investment in Commonwealth Games Scotland.
Commonwealth Games Scotland Honorary Medical Advisor Joan Watt has been awarded an Order of Merit by the Commonwealth Games Federation in recognition of her outstanding service to sport and a 45 year commitment to the Games movement.
A chartered physiotherapist, Joan contributed at her first Commonwealth Games as a Village Physiotherapist in 1970. Subsequently, Joan served the Scottish Commonwealth Games team as a physiotherapist at each Games from 1982 to 2002, taking the role of Senior Physiotherapist in 1994 and Joint Head Physiotherapist in 1998. In 2002 Joan took on the role of Head of Medical Services, based at the National Shooting Centre at Bisley, which was followed by two Games as Team Leader for Shooting at both 2006 Melbourne and Delhi 2010.
Appointed to the Commonwealth Games Scotland Board in 2003 as Honorary Medical Adviser, Joan was the first non-doctor to take this post. She was the Vice Chair of the Medical Group for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Bid and a member of the Medical Advisory Group for those Games.
Joan has also served as lead physiotherapist at Olympic Games, World and European Championships for athleti
cs and shooting, amongst other sports. Instrumental in establishing the British Sports Massage Association, she helped set up the Chartered Physiotherapists in Massage Therapy professional network and has been active in Anti-Doping education and testing for many years. A former Chairperson of Scottish Athletics, Joan was also the organisation’s first female President.
Congratulating Joan on the award, Paul Bush OBE, Chair at Commonwealth Games Scotland said: “I am delighted that Joan’s 45 year service to Commonwealth sport, and to Scotland’s Games teams in particular, is being recognised in this way. Her commitment has been truly remarkable and, having had the privilege of working with her on many occasions, this award could not go to a more deserving person.”
As Team Scotland aim for its most successful ever overseas Commonwealth Games, preparations for Gold Coast 2018 continue in earnest with the appointment of the General Team Managers, Team Camp and ‘Achieve’ programme personnel.
Euan Burton, flag bearer and judo gold medallist at Glasgow 2014, returns to Team Scotland as one of four General Team Managers who will lead the key areas of operational activity in the build up to and during Gold Coast 2018. He is joined by 2002 Team Scotland judo medallist David Somerville, who brings over 25 years of experience of multi-sport environments as athlete, coach and management across Olympics, Paralympics, and Commonwealth Games. Leslie Roy has Games management experience stretching back to 2002 and, leading on transport and logistics, will carry out a similar role to her responsibilities at Glasgow 2014, while Jennifer Livingstone, a new appointment to Team Scotland, offers a wealth of experience in para-sport, including involvement in multi-sport events such as the CPISRA World Games.
Vital to final preparations before the Gold Coast Games begin, will be the Team Scotland Camp, Australia, providing a home from home environment for the athletes as they adjust to the travel, culture and climate and the unique multi-sport environment.
Appointed as Team Camp Director, Stuart Turner, alongside an experienced team of three Team Camp Managers Aileen McGillivary, Irene Riach and Vicky Strange, will be responsible for the overall leadership, inspiration and unity of the team in this final phase of preparation. Working with all 18 sports on the Gold Coast programme, they will create and deliver a high performance environment in Australia, bringing individuals and sports together as one Team Scotland.
Stuart, Head of EventScotland, has proven success from his involvement in the Team GB holding camp prior to Sydney Olympic Games and as Director of the Team Scotland camp in 2006 prior to the Melbourne Games, while Vicky, Irene and Aileen bring a wealth of experience from their current work in performance sport and previous roles with Commonwealth Games Scotland and Glasgow 2014.
Commonwealth Games Scotland is also proud to announce the continuation of the ‘Achieve’ programme for a third successive Games. Aspiring young athletes and coaches will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Gold Coast 2018 as part of a structured learning and development programme in preparation for their participation in future major sporting events, including Commonwealth Youth Games and Commonwealth Games.
For Gold Coast, this programme will be led jointly by Achieve Directors Mary McClung and Scott Forrest, both former international athletes, who were also involved in this programme during the Glasgow 2014 Games. Together they aim to develop and deliver the best ever Achieve programme, bringing huge experience from their daily work with Scotland’s best athletes as Performance Lifestyle Advisers within the sportscotland Institute of Sport.
Team Scotland Chef De Mission, Jon Doig said: “We are absolutely delighted with the calibre of appointments we have made for Team Scotland at Gold Coast 2018. They all bring extensive experience as former athletes, managers and coaches across a wide range of sports and from numerous multi-sport events.
“We now begin 18 months of planning and preparation with an exciting blend of returning staff and those stepping into new roles for these Games, as we aim to deliver Team Scotland’s best ever overseas performance.”
Many of the new team announced today will join other key Team Scotland personnel on a visit to Gold Coast later this month, to start the detailed planning process and meet with Organising Committee colleagues.
As part of Women’s Sport Week, we profile two of Scotland’s leading female coaches, Shona Malcolm and Karen Ross, both of whom were nominated for Coach of the Year at the recent Team Scotland Scottish Sports Awards.
Shona Malcolm – scottishathletics / Scottish Disability Sport:
Shona started coaching athletics over 30 years ago and started coaching athletes with a disability 25 years ago, when asked to coach athletics within a multi-sports session. Playing a key part in the development of the Forth Valley Flyers disability athletics club formed in 2008, she is now Disability Athletics Development Officer and Officials Recruitment & Development Officer with scottishathletics and the Scottish Disability Sport / scottishathletics National Squad Coach.
In April 2014 Shona stepped into the breach to coach Jo Butterfield when it became apparent that there were no disability throws coaches in Scotland working at the elite level. Learning alongside Jo, Shona has provided the supportive environment for Jo to flourish, both technically and tactically, guiding her to a world records in both discus and club throw events. Jo was in the form of her life at Rio 2016, setting a new world record in the F51 Club Throw as she added the Paralympic title to her 2016 European gold, and gold and bronze from the IPC World Championships in October.
Shona has an abundance of ability, experience and skills and has been selected for the IAAF International Women’s Officials’ international development programme, with only one person in the UK nominated.
In her own time, Shona is also a UK and International athletics official team leader for field events. She put these skills to excellent use in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012, and was one of the three field referees at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Shona continues to coach on a weekly basis at the Forth Valley Flyers in Grangemouth and the Central Athletics Disability Squad and is a self-effacing, very modest coach who always gives 100% commitment and wants the best for the athletes involved. She truly encapsulates how to be an effective coach by her desire to learn and apply her knowledge to optimise the athletes’ performance. She never loses her roots and still realises the importance of bringing through the next generation of athletes.
Karen Ross – The Tennis Foundation:
Head of Disability Performance Coaching and Talent at the Tennis Foundation, Karen is a highly effective, passionate and inspirational coach working with wheelchair tennis players on the world stage.
In 2006 Karen was coaching Kevin Simpson towards the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing when she was approached to coach the then 14-year-old Gordon Reid. She continued to coach Kevin and Gordon in a voluntary capacity whilst in her day job she worked for Tennis Scotland as a Performance Manager.
In January 2016, ten years of hard work and dedication paid off with an outstanding year for Gordon in which he consistently dominated the world of wheelchair tennis in both singles and doubles events. He claimed his first Grand Slam singles title, beating world number one Shingo Kuniedaat the Australian Open in January, also reaching the doubles final, and didn’t look back. He reversed that order at the French Open, winning the doubles and finishing singles runner-up. At Wimbledon he won the inaugural wheelchair singles event and made it two titles with victory with Alfie Hewett in the doubles. He capped his season with a fantastic performance at the Paralympic Games in Rio, teaming up again with Hewett to take silver in the doubles, before the two faced each other in the singles final, with Gordon prevailing to take gold.
Karen has always worked hard to apply her tennis coaching skills to the wheelchair game, where she had to adapt and modify and work with the players to best understand their individual needs. Karen prioritises what all good coaches should concentrate on – the individual. A great example of Karen’s coaching prowess was her need to learn to coach the backhand, which is an entirely different stroke in the wheelchair game. She did her research watching hours of footage and real-life tennis in order to have secure knowledge and understanding, continually building round the individual preference of her players.
Over the past decade Karen has honed her coaching craft to nurture players to the highest level of performance, with considerable international success.
To find out more about Women’s Sport Week visit: https://www.womeninsport.org//
As Women’s Sport Week begins, Commonwealth Games Scotland is proud to support the drive for parity in sport. First in a series of posts this week celebrating our inspirational women in sport, both on the field of play and behind the scenes, is a blog from Chief Executive, Jon Doig OBE.
“Women’s Sport Week arrives off the back of a great Olympics and Paralympics that inspired a nation. At our very successful Team Scotland Scottish Sports Awards, Commonwealth Games Scotland was proud to recognise athletes, coaches, teams and community sports hubs, governing bodies and leaders for helping Team Scotland in its widest sense be successful over the last year.
“The efforts of Katherine Grainger winning a Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of becoming our most successful female Olympian, Maria Lyle and Kathleen Dawson in the Young Athlete category, Libby Clegg and Jo Butterfield shortlisted for the Para Sport Award, Heather Stanning, and Katie Archibald in the female athlete category, coach Karen Ross, the Scottish Women’s Football Team and Netball Scotland were all recognised as shortlisted nominees or winners.
“Add in the likes of Laura Muir, Eilidh Doyle, Sally Conway, Karen Darke, Alison Patrick, Sammi Kinghorn, Alisha Rees, Sophie Ogilvie, Amy Costello and para-athletics coach Shona Malcolm, who were all also nominated, and you can see what fantastic role models we have for many women and girls across the country.
“Their stories need to be told more. They reflect ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Being seen and heard recognises, not only their achievement, but also the contributions of their wider support networks and their local communities, and challenges perceptions. We hope through our ‘I’m a Team Scot’ programme to be rolled out in advance of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games to tell you more about these athletes. In our ‘Go Scotland’ campaign in 2014 we were proud to feature many of our female athletes across the 17 sports in the Games.
“It’s not just the individuals involved, with many of our member sports and others actively addressing inequality every day as part of their commitment to the Equality Standard promoted via sportscotland.
“At Commonwealth Games Scotland we are proud that our Board has had a strong female influence for many years, with 62% female representation, well ahead of the UK Government and Scottish Government targets. Former Chair, Louise Martin, was nominated by CGS and votedin as President of the Commonwealth Games Federation in 2015, the first woman to take on this international role. Team Scotland athletes in 2014 were 46% women while our General Team management were 50:50.
“Team Scotland at the last three Commonwealth Youth Games have been led by talented women who have all since contributed at senior Games and are in international sporting positions of influence. Our Achieve programme, which gives young athletes and coaches experience around a Games, has also targeted former female athletes through roles as mentors, working with potential coaches and Games athletes of the future and addressing how people can get experience for future roles.
“There’s much to do of course, with our coaching staff still dominated by males reflecting wider issues in developing and retaining female coaches at the international level, although we are committed to using our Youth Games appointments to give experience.
“The solutions to inequality don’t just sit with women and girls of course. It is as much an issue about changing attitudes of men and boys, particularly about what is seen as girls’ and boys’ sport, the value given to each and participants being seen as athletes first and foremost. Breaking barriers takes time but change can become normal very quickly. I am given hope reflecting on the personal feedback of my three young boys during Glasgow 2014. After watching Scotland play netball, all they reflected on was the incredible skill, the atmosphere and a Scotland win. Long may this continue.
Jon Doig OBE
Chief Executive
Following two years in retirement, Clyde the much-loved Glasgow 2014 mascot made a stunning comeback tonight at the Team Scotland Scottish Sports Awards in Edinburgh.
Following his big entrance with stunt bike team the Clan, Clyde, the popular face of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, was revealed in his new role as the Team Scotland mascot, who will be cheering on Team Scotland all the way to Gold Coast 2018 and beyond.
His return was met with huge excitement by the 600-strong audience, which included Clyde’s creator, schoolgirl, Beth Gilmour, as they heard from some of Scotland’s greatest athletes in a video clip, all explaining why they think that Clyde is the man to lead Team Scotland to future Games success.
Olympic cycling gold medallists Sir Chris Hoy and Katie Archibald were amongst those that count Clyde as a dear friend, whilst swimmer Ross Murdoch and boxer Charlie Flynn recounted memories of Clyde’s support during their golden medal moments at the Glasgow Games and hailed his athletic prowess that make him the perfect role model for the team.
Ross Murdoch said: “Clyde gave the Commonwealth Games somebody that people could connect with and it was just a lot of fun. He will be a great ambassador for Team Scotland.”
Sir Chris Hoy added: “I think it is great that Clyde is back and has been adopted by Team Scotland as their mascot and he will be cheering them on in Gold Coast and boosting morale. It is a legacy from Glasgow 2014 and clearly he was and will continue to be very popular with the younger generation which is so important.”
Katie Archibald said: “Clyde is somebody who unifies us all and I really love the humour of it too.”
Explaining the reasoning behind the comeback, Paul Bush OBE, Chair of Commonwealth GamesScotland said: “2014 was a pivotal time for Scottish sport and the Commonwealth Games were fantastic for the whole nation and Team Scotland had its most successful Games ever.
“When we looked back, we felt Clyde played a really vital role in galvanising the country behind the Team and the Games and this was something we valued and wanted to build on. So Clyde coming back is very special for us and he embodies all of the Team Scotland values: proud, united, ambitious, inspirational and inclusive which are depicted in our new brand.
“I am hugely excited about the rebirth of Clyde and this is a very special moment for Team Scotland. Many thanks to the Commonwealth Games Federation and the other Glasgow 2014 partners, Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government for their endorsement of this initiative.”
Martin Reynolds, former Head of Marketing for Glasgow 2014 and now marketing consultant to the Commonwealth Games Federation added: “Clyde was so much more than just a mascot, he symbolised a really passionate, proud and positive city and country. He had a serious job to do, but didn’t take himself too seriously.
“He connected with thousands of children and young people up and down the country and it is just so great to see Clyde coming back to rekindle all the enthusiasm that everybody had for the Games. He will be supporting all the athletes in the next big challenge in the Gold Coast in 2018.”
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/2_mQeySX1VU