
Sir Bradley Wiggins, Olympic gold medal winner and Britain’s first Tour de France champion was joined by Victoria Pendleton, Jaguar Land Rover Academy of Sport Ambassador and the UK’s most successful female track cyclist of all-time to mentor these ‘rising stars’ of their sport. The cycling icons shared personal stories from their record-breaking careers, offered insights into the challenges of performing at elite level and discussed the importance of setting goals.
Since its inception in 2010, the Jaguar Land Rover Academy of Sport has worked alongside charitable partner SportsAid to recognise, celebrate and inspire the very best of British sporting talent. The unique bursary and mentoring programme has now been developed to include an even greater variety of exclusive workshops and performance focus groups tailored to the needs of each young athlete.
Victoria Pendleton said: “I am very proud to support the Jaguar Land Rover Academy of Sport, and be able to inspire Britain’s most talented athletes through sharing some personal experiences during my career. There’s nothing better than representing your country on the world stage, so I hope to see some of these cyclists winning medals in the Velodrome in years to come.”
Laura Schwab, Marketing Director at Jaguar Land Rover UK, said: “We are committed to running an exciting Academy programme in 2015, and working with SportsAid to create more inspirational opportunities for these athletes to learn from some of the most celebrated British sports stars.”
Tim Lawler, Chief Executive of SportsAid commented: "SportsAid is proud to continue its work with The Jaguar Land Rover Academy of Sport, and supporting the next generation of British sporting talent. It takes a huge amount of dedication and commitment to achieve in sport, and we are excited to be able to play a role in nurturing this young talent and helping them on their road to success. For these athletes to be able to understand some of their performance and motivational challenges were also the same of those experienced by British legends like Sir Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton is invaluable.”
The 50 Rising Stars have been nominated by their governing bodies and selected following a rigorous process conducted by SportsAid. The Academy, now in its fifth year, has awarded 276 bursaries since 2010 with 30% of its Rising Stars going onto professional or world class funding, including 2012 British Olympic Gold Medal winner, Jade Jones.