Nations Continue To Grow With ISAF And IOC Olympic Solidarity

With 2013 well underway the ISAF Training and Development Department is already experiencing an increased number of applications for programmes designed to grow the sport of sailing within all 138 Member National Authorities (MNAs).

A National Level 2 Technical Course for Coaches has been completed in Singapore and other courses have been confirmed which are part of the Santander 2014 Emerging Nations Programme, started in 2012 with support from the Spanish Federation (RFEV):

• Regional Level 3 Technical Course for Sailors and Coaches – Langebaan, South Africa, 4 – 10 March.
• Regional Level 3 Technical Course for Sailors and Coaches – Cabarete, Dominican Republic, 22 – 29 March.

Along with these confirmed events ISAF is processing Technical Course and Training Scholarship applications from: Sri Lanka, Madagascar, the Cook Islands, Greece, Qatar, Bahrain, U.A.E, Bahamas, Thailand, British Virgin Islands, Israel, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria.

There are also a number of MNAs that are working towards applications for the highest level of IOC funding – Development of a National Sports structure, for which ISAF has had one successful MNA per year over the last 3 years.

This amount of interest is un-paralleled for so early on in the year and very much due to the success of events such as the ISAF Annual Conference ‘MNA Forum’ and ISAF Development Symposium.

The 2012 statistics for all ISAF Training and Development programmes have now been released and are available below:

1. Technical Courses for Coaches
12 courses
199 participants
72.5% of participants under the age of 34.
14% of participants were female. 4% above the IOC target of 10%

2. Sports Specific Training for Coaches – ISAF Training Scholarship
7 MNAs benefited
3 regions represented (3 from Africa, 2 from Asia and 2 from Oceania)
29% female representation (2 Women and 5 Men)

3. Development of a National Sports Structure
1 MNA was successful in their application (Poland)

With the IOC recently releasing figures for Olympic Solidarity funding that show a total budget of $435,000,000 USD for the 2013 – 2016 Quadrennial Plan (an increase of 40% on the previous quad) Emerging ISAF Member National Authorities will be able to benefit from more access to funding through the Olympic Solidarity World Programmes.

ISAF Training and Development Manager Dan Jaspers said of this increase in funding, “We have proved to our members that it is possible to access funding that can help them develop their National Sail Training Programmes and the growth in successful applications over recent years is down to not only a change of attitude in our members that sees them working more closely with ISAF in order to access International Standards of Training for their coaches but also sees the National Olympic Committees take note of the fact that Sailing has a new found voice and has proven that it can stand alongside other, larger International Sports Federations when it comes to competing for funding of programmes at national level. I encourage all our members on a daily basis not to take no for an answer and to keep asking for more, something which those that do find very beneficial indeed for the legacy of the sport of sailing in their nation. I can see already that the next 4 years will see an even greater increase in the funding that the IOC is helping us to access, this indeed a great time to be involved in International Sport Development.”

To keep up with all Training and Development news follow the updates via the dedicated Twitter feed @connect2sailing and join the 53,000 members on our dedicated Facebook page.

If you or your country wish to know how you could benefit from any of the programmes that ISAF is engaged in delivering to develop the sport of sailing globally then please contact our Training and Development Department.

A video preview to the first act of the 2013 Extreme Sailing Series.

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