ANYONE who logged on late last week to the website of the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation might have been surprised and a little confused to see no mention whatsoever of the organisation.
The title of its website – 'In the winning zone' – is, in any case, a little cryptic with regard to the organisation's name. But the curious thing was that, on its home page, those five words – "Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation" – were nowhere
to be seen.
What this means is that commonsense has prevailed, and the name has been dropped. Since it was established in 2006, the SISF, as well as being a mouthful (even as an acronym), has been confused with the Scottish Institute of Sport. Which is an understandable mistake to make, though the organisations, while linked, and with shared board members (when the SIS had its own board), are completely separate, the SIS being the body devoted to supporting elite sports people, the SISF being the charity set up by Sir Bill Gammell in 2006 to foster winning attitudes and improve Scotland's sporting culture.
So what is the new name? Cue drum roll ...The organisation will henceforth be known as Winning Scotland Foundation.
"This new name truly reflects our inspirational approach to shaping a winning mentality through sport," says Ailsa Proverbs, the WSF (as it is now known) marketing and sponsorship manager. It seems appropriate, since winning is certainly the buzzword of the Foundation, with its work with Yehuda Shinar, the Israeli who assisted Clive Woodward with his Rugby World Cup-winning rugby team, just one example.
Shinar's computer game, known simply as Winning, has been introduced by the Foundation to some Scottish schools, with the charity's executive director, Graham Watson, describing it as "a brilliant way of teaching children the thinking process of a winner."
As the WSF's own literature says: "It is proven that winning at anything can be learnt and that you can get into the habit of being a winner. The Foundation believes that sport is the best training ground to give young people skills which are applicable across their whole lives."
It also "sets young people on a path to self-fulfilment, and helps them believe that what is important is not how good they are but how good they want to become."
Continuing the winning theme, the WSF is also venturing into books, and is behind a new tome to be published on 4 September. Entitled Be a Winner: Achieve Your Goals with Scotland's Sporting Heroes, it is, appropriately enough, a collaboration between a sports journalist and a business journalist, Richard Orr and Kenny Kemp, the meat of the book being interviews with the country's leading sports men and women, including Chris Hoy, James McFadden, Andy and Jamie Murray and Liz McColgan.
Politicians stay at homeHERE'S a story the likes of which you don't hear every day. It might be headlined "Politicians Not Jumping on Beijing Bandwagon Shock." But it transpires that not one member of the Scottish Government – not even First Minister Alex Salmond, or sports minister Stewart Maxwell – will be attending the Olympic Games.
VIP "packages" reputedly cost in the region of £8,000 for a few days, and it wasn't felt that this would be money well spent. Quite right, too.
There will, in fact, be a dearth of Scottish sports officials, other than those such as sailing's performance director Stephen Park, who will attend in a coaching capacity. Louise Martin's appointment as chair of sportscotland came too late for her to arrange to go – and in any case, having circled the globe several times last year in the name of winning the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Glasgow, she probably deserves a break.
Mike Whittingham, executive director of the Scottish Institute of Sport, is the only administrator who will be in Beijing. Given that his responsibility is elite sport, and the fact that there will be 42 Scots in action in Beijing, that seems appropriate, too.
BBC invasion of BeijingTHE exodus to Beijing began in earnest last week, with the massively complicated – and costly – business of transporting the horses the first priority. The British Olympic Association reported "strong interest among the media and general public in this event," but added, regretfully, that "direct access to the cargo zones" will not be possible. This meant that the horses were not available for interview.
They travelled light, since the 4,500kg of hay and 2,000kg of horse feed took the long boat to China.
This week it is the turn of the media, with around 650 representatives of the British written and broadcast media expected in Beijing. That breaks down, roughly, as 200 from newspapers and commercial radio and TV stations. And 450 – yes: 450! – from the BBC.
