Crystal Palace Diving Institute in London has been named as a British Diving Talent Identification Centre in preparation for success at the 2012 Olympics.
Established at the beginning of the year, the centre has been working in partnership with nearly 500 schools across the London boroughs to identify the next generation of British divers.
Two programmes are currently running at the Institute, identifying youngsters for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. The first programme is already underway and is looking at primary school children looking for success at the 2016 Olympics. Over 22,000 primary school children have already been tested, with 250 making it onto the Talent Identification squad.
The second programme is in place designed to identify athletes with potential for success at London 2012. Testing for this programme will run throughout May and will be aimed at children already involved within sports, whose skills are transferable.
The institute also boasts the olny a dry diving facility in the London area, which allows athletes to break down their skills before taking to the water.
British Diving’s National Performance Director Steve Foley believes the programmes in place at Crystal Palace will be important for development of diving in London.
“The Talent Identification programme at the National Sports Centre is one of the largest we have ever conducted for British Diving,” he said. “As an official Talent Identification Centre British Diving will support and assist the Crystal Palace diving institute with its search for talent in London schools.”
“In the spirit of the London 2012 Olympics I believe it is vital to support a special project with the dedication and foresight that Crystal Palace Diving Institute is displaying."
The Institute has been working with former Chinese Olympic coach Cheng Yang who has implemented Chinese training methods and Foley believes this will increase chances of success at future competitions.
"Head Coach Cheng Yang, has impacted on the training program at Crystal Palace,” he said. “The Institute is run under the Chinese diving school principal with the support of professional gymnastic as well as diving coaches.”
“The Chinese are by far the most successful diving nation in the world and their training system has proven to be a winning formula. British Diving as a whole is interested in applying their knowledge to our training centres and we very much support the idea of having another Chinese coach joining the team in Crystal Palace.”
-ENDS-
For more information contact ASA Media Assistant Gemma Field on 01509 632262, 07917 726431 or email gemma.field@swimming.org
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain. It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association) British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Speedo® is the world's leading swimwear brand. Founded in Sydney in 1928 Speedo has over 75 years of heritage and expertise in swimwear and launched the FASTSKIN® FS-PRO, the fastest most powerful lightweight suit on the market, in 2007. Speedo is the Official Supplier to British Swimming and the ASA and provides valuable investment for swimming from grassroots through to elite level.
www.speedo.co.uk
