Mission 2012 Panel to drive paralympic success

UK Sport has unveiled the line-up of its new Paralympic Performance Panel, designed to help individual sports reach their performance targets on the road to the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The panel consists of three UK Sport officials, John Steele, chief executive; Liz Nicholl, director of elite sport; and Peter Keen, head of performance, as well as Chris Holmes, nine-time Paralympic gold medallist; and Sue Wolstenholme, director of The British Tennis Foundation.

The Paralympic Panel complements the line up already announced for Olympic sports, with both groups set to take up their duties this Autumn.

Chaired by John Steele, the panel will meet four times a year and has been tasked with providing objective assessment of each sport’s progress against its performance ambitions.

The panel’s report will then be published quarterly on a sport-by-sport basis.

John Steele, said: “We will be measuring sports against three key criteria that centre around their performances on the field of play and the quality of support and governance they provide off it.

“Where things are not as they should be, our performance expertise will be coupled with some of best thinking that Paralympic sport has to offer to find creative solutions to issues that threaten to have an adverse impact on performance in five years time.”

Using a traffic light system, each sport will be benchmarked against its agreed aspiration for 2012. If scored green then progress is deemed to be on track.

If amber then challenges have been identified that require attention or increased support. If the assessment is red, then the panel believes immediate remedial intervention is required and will make recommendations.

The results of each evaluation will then be captured on a giant ‘Mission 2012’ tracking board in UK Sport’s Headquarters in London – with the overall status of the sport the main rating that will be visible.

John Steele continued: “Mission 2012 will be a means for UK Sport to continue to account for the substantial public investment now in place, but it is much more than that.

“It is a vision for how everyone involved in the mission through to 2012 and beyond needs to work collectively and ensure that we maximise this unique opportunity for British sport. There is no hiding place – nor should there be.”