26 Athletes Supported by the Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Potential Programmes

The Commonwealth Potential and newly launched Olympic & Paralympic Potential Programmes, previously called Podium Potential, were initially launched in October 2017 and have supported approximately 35 of the country’s top athletes through centralised warm weather and altitude training camps; bespoke sports science & medicine services through the Sport Northern Ireland Sports Institute or access to other experts if the athlete was not based in Northern Ireland; and individual support for competition programmes.

The relaunch of the Potential Programmes will help to facilitate more of Northern Ireland’s athletes and coaches to be competitive on a world stage, and so raise the profile of athletics in Northern Ireland.

The athlete-coach pairs who have been selected for the Commonwealth Potential programme for 2021 are:

The athlete-coach pairs who have been selected for the Olympic & Paralympic Potential programme for 2021 are:

Director of Coaching and Athlete Development, Jackie Newton said: 

“We have timed the relaunch of these programme in the lead up to the next two significant major championship years, so that the titles accurately reflect the mission that each of them will drive. We hope that the athletes in each programme, having demonstrated their potential, will be actively working towards and aspiring to performing at the next Commonwealth or Olympic Games.

We received more applications than we had places for on the programmes but we will continue to monitor the results of up and coming athletes who haven’t been selected this time and will invite them onto the programme once their performances are clearly tracking towards making the next Games.

We would like to congratulate all of the above athletes and their coaches on their selection and we look forward to supporting their progression to reach their potential.”