Our Olympic project is 'model' for regions
Posted: Friday, 27th April 2012
MMU is helping to stoke Olympic fever in the North ahead of this summer’s Games.
The Cheshire pre-games training camp, which is part-based at the Crewe campus and hosts athletes from Oceania, has been nominated for two national awards.
Moreover, our sport and exercise science team are preparing to welcome Sir Charles Allen, Chair of the London 2012 Nations and Regions Group on a flying visit on May 9.
Phil Cook, sport and marketing manager, said: “We have been selected as one of a handful of places they are visiting on the day with the expectation being that his visit will showcase the sort of great work happening across the UK.
National news
“It is even more high-profile as Sir Charles will be accompanied on his visit by journalist from the Financial Times who reporting on London 2012 benefits across the UK.”
Games officials will meet Professor Neil Fowler’s team and partners from East Cheshire Council as well as track and field athletes and coaches from the Solomon Islands.
The MMU-East Cheshire project which has welcomed Olympic team boxers, runners and volleyball players, and engages local communities in sport at a variety of levels has also been acknowledged by Podium, the body overlooking the Higher Education sector’s contribution towards London 2012.
MMU Cheshire and two other NW universities (Edge Hill and UCLan) have been awarded a medal in the Podium Awards, picking up a bronze in The British Council Award for Innovative International Collaboration for work on the Oceania Training Camp partnership.
Main award
The “Partnership with Oceania Islands” has been also been shortlisted from 200 national projects for the prestigious “Pierre De-Coubertin Award” at the Podium Awards, to be announced on May 3.
This is the main award of the night, awarded for the project that most lives up to the ideals of the founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin.