Former World Champion sailor, Mark Nicholls, is the Focus 2014 Lead Manager at Sport Wales, part of the management team that directs funding towards sports and athletes that can deliver medals for Wales.

In the role since June 2011, Mark comes from a 12 year background with British Sailing. Not only did he compete himself but he also worked with GB Sailing on gold medal winning programmes for the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, as a programme coach.

Mark says;

"We focus our support on the sports, athletes and coaches that have the biggest chance of delivering medals at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, and any Welsh athlete and/or coach outside of the ten sports in the Elite Sport Strategy that are capable of delivering Olympic medals in the current cycle and need support."

Mark also jointly manages the Sport Wales Institute staff and practitioners that deliver elite athletes services such as physiotherapy, performance nutrition and strength and conditioning to name a few.