Our Achievements
- More young people than ever before are members of sports clubs
- The 2008 Olympic Games was the most successful for any Welsh contingent in 100 years and more than 25% of Paralympic GB’s gold medal haul in Beijing came from Welsh sportsmen and women. The Sports Council for Wales provides athletes and coaches with comprehensive and cutting edge sports science and medicine support.
- More than 134,000 primary school children take part in Dragon Sport – the Sports Council for Wales’ campaign to get more primary school children playing more extra-curricular sport than ever before
- 98% of Wales’ secondary schools are now signed up to the 5x60 scheme – the Sports Council for Wales’ programme to get more secondary school children off the sidelines and into extra-curricular sport. Research has demonstrated that 5 x60 is not only increasing participation in sport but it is also increasing self-esteem, improving behaviour and raising awareness of the importance of exercise.
- The Sports Council’s PE and School Sport programme is improving standards of PE in schools right across Wales – Estyn (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for education and training in Wales) has heaped praise on the scheme and has also found that it has contributed towards improved attitude and behaviour of pupils
- The Sports Council for Wales ensures that local solutions address local needs. Working with the Sports Council, plans have been produced by each local authority which seek to use the programmes and support available from the Sports Council. In working with all Local Authorities, targets are now more robust than ever before which will drive towards increasing participation and improving performance.
- Since 1999, the Sports Council’s small scale National Lottery grant, Community Chest, has injected more than £9 million into more than 12,000 community projects. A large emphasis of the programme is training volunteers so that clubs do not have to pay for coaching courses.
- The number of sporting opportunities available to people with disabilities has massively increased since the launch of the Disability Sport Wales community programme in 2000. In 2008-9, there were more than 350,000 opportunities for disabled people to get involved in sport.
- Since the advent of the National Lottery, the Sports Council has invested in key landmark facilities – the Wales National Velodrome, Wales National Pool, national and regional centres across a number of sports such as athletics, swimming and golf. The latest piece of the jigsaw is a National Centre of Excellence for rugby.
