NEWS

ITU Sport Development Announces 2010 Scholarship Award Recipients

By Brad Culp | 29 Apr, 2010

ITU Sport Development has selected 10 athletes from nine developing and emerging federations for its 2010 Athlete Scholarship programme. Additionally, one coaching scholarship has been awarded for the 2010 season. These scholarships are awarded each year to athletes and coaches from developing and emerging National Federations to afford recipients with the opportunity to advance their skills, with the long term objective of participation at an Olympic Games.

Athletes receiving scholarships for this season are:

Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI)
Dan Bi Hong (KOR)
Elizabeth Bravo (ECU)
Fabienne St. Louis (MRI)
Leonardo Chacon (CRC)
Michel Gonzalez (CUB)
Min Ho Heo (KOR)
Abrahm Louw (NAM)*
Gabriela Bolanos (GUA)*
Ron Darmon (ISR)*
*denotes Junior

Flabio Carmona of Cuba has been awarded with a coaching scholarship for this season. A second call for applications for coaching scholarships will be issued as very few applications were received. In total, 44 applications for athlete and coaching scholarships were received from four regions. Oceania was the only region that did not submit any applications.

In the second year of this Olympic Quad leading into the 2012 Olympic Games in London, most of the scholarships have been awarded to athletes identified as strong prospects for the 2012 Games. Three of the athletes selected have been identified as exceptional Junior athletes and have been awarded scholarships to support their ongoing development toward the 2016 Olympic Games.

In addition to seeking out prospects for the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, ITU Sport Development gave consideration to gender equality, regional fairness and the prospect of adding new flags to the triathlon competition at the Games. In order to be considered for a scholarship, athletes must have a proven record in ITU events or must be identified by coaching staff at ITU Sport Development Camps and Clinics. For the coaching scholarship, consideration was only given to coaches who were closely involved with the National Federation (NF) programmes and who submitted a plan to improve and advance their skills and knowledge with a view of enhancing the NF.

All selected athletes and coaches will be assigned to an ITU approved mentor and will follow a mutually agreed upon programme of development throughout the year with certain mandatory camps, events and specialised coaching opportunities.