Richard Moore - Sportscotland goes head over heels for gymnastics chief

Published on Sunday 14 September 2008 22:49

A RESHUFFLE at sportscotland has created a vacancy at Scottish Gymnastics where Mike Roberts has earned great acclaim for his work as chief executive. Roberts is to take up the role of Director of Sports Development at the national sports agency, a new post created in a restructure prompted by the Scottish Government's decision to merge sportscotland with the Scottish Institute of Sport.

Sportscotland's gain is gymnastics' loss, with Roberts having overseen huge changes, and improvements, in his five years at the governing body, not least in the performances of athletes such as Adam Cox and Daniel Keatings.

"Gymnastics has moved on apace over the course of the last five-and-a-half years," says Roberts, "and I've been lucky enough to have had a fantastic group of people working with me to develop and promote the sport. I have been extremely happy, and the decision to move on has only been made easier because of the opportunity afforded to me.

"As someone who loves sport, and having competed at various levels in rugby, football, swimming, basketball and canoeing, to name a few, the opportunity of moving into a post which will allow me to influence agendas across sport is something I am really looking forward to."

Scottish Gymnastics was professionalised in 2003, with the role of chief executive created. What has followed has been a remarkable story of development and growth, to the point where only the lack of facilities is holding the sport back. Turnover in that period has increased from 409,000 to 857,000; for 2007-08 it is projected to rise to more than 1m. The numbers attending coaching courses have also doubled in the last five years.

With female gymnasts forced to retire so young, Scottish Gymnastics has been pro-active in seeking new opportunities for athletes who can find themselves on the sporting scrapheap when still in their teens.

The twins Helen and Carol Gallashan, who represented Scotland at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, have thus transferred to diving, and have realistic aspirations of competing at the 2012 Olympics. This has prompted UK Sport to launch a nationwide scheme to attract retiring gymnasts into diving.

Three new director roles are being created at sportscotland, with Mike Whittingham, executive director at the Scottish Institute of Sport, assuming total responsibility for elite sport. With Roberts charged with sports development, a third new director will also be appointed.

Mind games at Hampden

A FASCINATING event will be hosted at Hampden on Friday by Winning Scotland Foundation (formerly the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation). Carol Dweck, a renowned professor of psychology at Stanford University and acclaimed author, will, before a cross-section of Scotland's sporting community, discuss how her "mindset theories" can be applied to sport.

Dweck says that there are two types of mindset: those that are "fixed" and those that can grow, which she calls a "growth mindset." As she has said: "There are things that distinguish great athletes – champions – from others. Most of the sports world think it's their talent. I argue that it's their mindset." As one reviewer has put it: "Unless you are a hermit, you can definitely benefit from (her] book."

Update of the Millars' tale

ONE of Scotland's sporting greats was quietly acknowledged in Glasgow on Saturday, on the day of his 50th birthday. It was fitting that the Tour of Britain cycle race set off that day from Robert Millar's home city on the occasion of his birthday – and 19 years after he won a previous incarnation of the national tour.

Millar has disappeared, as many will know, with various rumours surrounding his current identity and whereabouts. But contact was recently re-established with his former protg, his fellow Glaswegian Brian Smith, and last Tuesday, as the Tour visited the south of England, the two met up for the first time in ten years, since Millar managed the Scottish team at the 1998 Prutour.

At their rendezvous last week, Smith, now race director at the Tour of Britain, took delivery of some of Millar's old cycling shirts, including a collector's item: his 1984 Tour de France king of the mountains jersey. Millar has signed it, and gifted it to Smith to auction off for the Braveheart Fund, which Smith established to help aspiring young Scottish cyclists.

That led on Saturday to the two Scots in the race, David Millar and Evan Oliphant, being photographed at the stage start in Glasgow with the shirts.

The non-related David Millar confirmed he will return to Scotland on 25 October to attend the Braveheart fundraising dinner in Kilmarnock. He is expected to be joined by the fund's patron, Chris Hoy, and an as yet unnamed star from the cycling world. A clue: it doesn't get much bigger.