Sporting Giants was a scheme launched by Sir
Steve Redgrave
Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave (born 23 March 1962) is a British retired rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships golds ...
on behalf of
UK Sport
UK Sport is the government agency responsible for investing in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the United Kingdom. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
It was created ...
in February 2007 to identify young people with the potential to display talent in sports such as
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...
,
rowing and
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
. Because tallness is considered a possible advantage in those sports a minimum height of 6’ 3” (190 cm) for men and 5’11 (180 cm) for women was specified. An age requirement of 16 to 25 was set and an athletic background was also sought. 4,800 applications were received for the scheme, 3,854 of which met the eligibility criteria.
2012 Summer Olympics
Ten participants in the scheme were members of
Team GB
Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. I ...
at the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
and one of them was a medal winner:
Helen Glover won gold in the women's
coxless pair
A coxless pair is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars.
The crew consists of a pair of rowers, each having one oar, one on the stroke side (rower's right h ...
s rowing. She was a cross country runner, swimmer, hockey and tennis player but had no rowing experience prior joining the scheme in 2008. At 178 cm tall Glover did not meet the minimum height standard specified for the scheme but she stood on tiptoes when she was being measured at the selection event.
Victoria Thornley
Victoria Thornley (born 30 November 1987) is a Welsh rower. She won a silver medal for Great Britain with Katherine Grainger in the women's double sculls at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was also a member of the Great Britain team that finishe ...
finished fifth as a member of the women's
eight
8 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
8 or eight may also refer to:
Years
* AD 8, the eighth year of the AD era
* 8 BC, the eighth year before the AD era
Art
*The Eight (Ashcan School), a group of twentieth century painters associated with the As ...
rowing crew. Four male and two female participants in the scheme were members of the first handball teams ever fielded by the UK at an Olympic Games. The men's team included
Bobby White, the team captain, who was a semi professional footballer before he applied. The teams lost all the matches in their groups, the men's team being defeated 44-15 in their opening match against
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
[http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/talent-id/ Talent at ''UK Sport''. Retrieved 15 August 2012]
References
{{reflist
2012 Summer Olympics