Welsh Sports Stars to Inspire Carmarthenshire youngsters

Welsh sporting figures who have won medals at the top level of sport are set to help inspire the next generation at a special event to mark the build up to London 2012.

Olympic swimming medallist David Davies, Commonwealth swimming medallists Jazz Carlin and Georgia Davies, boxing star Kevin Evans, Welsh netballer Stephanie Williams and multi-sport icon Non Evans will be speaking with over 100 Carmarthenshire school pupils who have been selected for a unique role to promote sport.

Pupils from schools across the county have been chosen as official London 2012 Young Ambassadors. Platinum and Gold ambassadors will represent the county, silver ambassadors will represent secondary schools and bronze ambassadors will represent primary schools.

Carmarthenshire will be the first local authority area in Wales to incorporate all levels of Young Ambassadors on a countywide scale.

The UK-wide Young Ambassador programme was born in the summer of 2006 as a direct response to realising Lord Coe's Singapore Promise.

It means hundreds of young people across Wales being recruited as figureheads to help increase participation in sport inside and outside school, as well as promoting healthy and active lifestyles. Promoting the Olympic and Paralympic values, as well as the event itself, is another role that it is hoped could make the biggest impact peer-to-peer. 

While the initiative is managed by the Youth Sport Trust, in Wales it is delivered in partnership between Sport Wales, local authorities and schools.

As well as the established sports stars, young athlete Carys Mansfield (javelin), a silver medallist at the recent Commonwealth Youth Games, will be on hand to talk about sport. Professor Laura McAllister - Chair of Sport Wales and political analyst for BBC Wales- will also talk about the role of young people in Welsh sport.

Active Young People Co-ordinator for Carmarthenshire, Carl Daniels commented:

"Young Ambassadors is a great way of empowering young people to help shape the future of sport provision and to have an impact on participation levels. We have really pushed the scheme in the county with the belief that it can help us get more young people more active more often.

"With so many new faces being brought on board we want to inspire them to do the best job they can so that they can make the biggest difference."