Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe, TD, today (Thursday) facilitated a media briefing of the new €4million High Performance Training Centre at the Irish Institute of Sport, Dublin. This gave members of the media an insight into the progress that has been made on the Centre and the role it is playing in meeting the needs of Irish High Performance athletes.
The Centre, based on the National Sport Campus, will provide a World Class Training and Support Environment where Irish high performance athletes, coaches and support staff train, meet and exchange expertise, to realise their potential.
Minister Donohoe said: ‘The High Performance Training Centre is a very important development for Irish sport and for our High Performance athletes, providing them with world-class training facilities here at home. The Government’s investment in this project, and in the National Sports Campus as a whole, is recognition of the importance of having appropriate facilities and supports in place to help our sportsmen and women to reach their full potential’.
The Training Centre provides support for Ireland’s athletes in elite physical conditioning, testing, rehabilitation, nutrition, physiology, medicine, precision analysis, education, life-skills. The Centre features a 4 lane indoor 130m track with performance analysis equipment, integrated long jump and a fully equipped world class physical conditioning area to ensure athletes and coaches are given every support needed to impact performance on the world stage.
Speaking at the event, Chair of Sport Ireland, Kieran Mulvey commented: ‘Our mission is to support Irish Sports to reach world podiums by ensuring excellence in the high performance system and delivering world class services. Our new High Performance Centre will provide a world class environment where our elite athletes can prepare at home to realise their performance potential on the world stage”.
The Centre boasts an integrated medicine and rehab area, athletes’ kitchen with nutrition demonstration and education area and social ecology space where athletes and coaches can rest from training, catch up on study and meet peers.
The Centre also features a new changing village with recovery suite, integrating existing areas of the Institute that deliver high performance Physiology and Life-skills support services.
Chief Executive of Sport Ireland, John Treacy explained: ‘I am delighted to see the new High Performance Training Centre come on stream as we look towards Rio and beyond. As part of the investment, we consulted intensively with athletes, coaches, performance directors and specialists across the team to consider design, layout and equipment based on our sports current needs and also to ensure future proofing this support environment’.
In addition to the supporting high performance athletes, coaches and support staff, the facility will also support the Irish Amateur Boxing Association’s High Performance programme. With a fully specced out boxing gym, the facility will include 4 training rings and 1 full size competition ring, analysis equipment and coaches offices and will be fully functioning in early 2016.
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Notes to the Editor
About the HP Training Centre
The Institute of Sport currently supports 18 high performance sports, upwards of 160 athletes and 46 coaches both from their Institute base and in the field.
Planning permission for the Centre was achieved in April 2014 with construction started in November 2014. Construction was completed in September 2015.
The floor area is 3,864m2 and features a Strength & Conditioning area, Mixed training zone, Rehab & Medical areas, 4 Lane Sprint track/jump area – 130m, Boxing Area, Athlete Social Ecology, Kitchen, Changing Area, Sauna/Steam room and Ice Room.
The construction price of the Centre was €3.98m with an additional €721k investment in equipment.
About the Institute of Sport
In 2015:
- 187 athletes from 20 National Governing Bodies attended clinics at the Institute HQ
- 55 athletes availed of cardiac screening coordinated by Institute medical services Team
- 97 blood profile tests were carried out for 71 athletes
- 163 referrals for specialist medical care (e.g. cardiac screening, MRIs, DEXA scans and clinical psychology)
- 24 coaches from 18 sports were involved in the Pursuit of Excellence Podium Programme
- There were 17 applications (12 new applications & 5 re-accreditation) from High Performance Sport Science professionals for membership of the Institutes Professional Quality Assurance Programme