Olympic Training Camp Guide

A mere six years after its establishment, the excellence of Aberystwyth University's Department of Sport and Exercise Science has been awarded international recognition by being included in the London Olympics Organising Committee Pre-Games Camp Training Guide, which features sporting facilities across the UK.

The Guide has recently been circulated to all National Olympic Committees and National Paralympic Committees, who will then decide where to base themselves or where to send individual athletes to prepare for London 2012.

Following a rigorous audit process, where centres were assessed against strict technical criteria the Department is now one of the centres available to countries participating in the games and will provide training facilities for elite athletes in mountain biking.

With four internationally recognised mountain biking trails located within 30k of the town, Aberystwyth University is well placed to offer high quality facilities and training services in the run-up to the games.

However, it is not only the geographical location that will be attractive to countries seeking training facilities. As the Head of Department, Professor David Lavallee says: “The high quality of expertise among the department’s staff, coupled with the excellent facilities in the Carwyn James building, with laboratories that have recently been accredited by the British Association for Sports and Exercise Science, place the department among the best available.”

Among these cutting edge facilities is an environmental chamber, allowing the cyclists to train in a variety of hot, cold and humid conditions. Professor Lavallee and his team can also provide teams with support from physiological, psychological and biomechanical perspectives.

As well as the focused science elements, teams will also of course be able to take advantage of the University’s excellent wider sporting facilities.

Over the next year, the Department will target some of the countries that competed at the Beijing Olympics, forging relationships and working with them on planning a training programme to enhance their performance and build up to the games.

This work is already underway, with much being done to coordinate facilities available across Wales. It is also being supported by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games which is offering up to £25,000 to visiting teams and nations to prepare at accredited facilities such as those offered at Aberystwyth University.

David Evans, who is responsible on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government for coordinating camps in Wales is proud of what is on offer: “The 2012 Pre-Games Training Camp Guide contains high quality elite sporting facilities which will give teams and individual athletes a great selection of venues from which they can choose to prepare for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

“That so many facilities are included in the Guide shows the standard of sports facilities we have here in Wales, and Aberystwyth University is able to offer similar climactic conditions to Games time conditions, which is potentially very attractive,” he added.

Professor Lavallee is looking forward with enthusiasm to the work ahead and the opportunities that present themselves. He will have a good back-up team: one of his PhD research students, Sunghee Park, is a former Olympic tennis player from Korea and member of her country’s Olympic Committee, and her experience and knowledge will be extremely valuable.

The combination of location, facilities and expertise at Aberystwyth, accompanied by enthusiasm and eagerness to see the development of sport will certainly prove to be invaluable to any country or team that decides to take advantage of the package on offer.