UK Sport announced this week that British Swimming and the Amateur Swimming Association have become the first sports bodies to achieve the Intermediate level of the Equality Standard for Sport.
The Standard is a collaboration of the four Home Country Sports Councils and UK Sport, and is supported by the CCPR, the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, the English Federation of Disability Sport and Sporting Equals. It guides sport and community organisations towards achieving equality, and assists them in developing structures and processes, as well as assessing performance and ensuring continuous improvement.
Swimming is the first sport in the UK to reach the Intermediate level, having achieved the Preliminary level in 2006.
Evidence was submitted to independent Equality Standard Verifiers who decided that British Swimming and the ASA had demonstrated a longstanding commitment to equality and diversity with a wide range of innovative projects and activities initiated.
UK Sport’s Head of Policy, Amanda Bennett, said: “This is a tremendous achievement as the Intermediate level of the Equality Standard requires governing bodies to demonstrate they are increasing opportunities for a diverse range of people. It represents a significant challenge to sports organisations as they have to develop equality impact assessments and put schemes in place to attract new athletes, coaches, officials and leaders from diverse groups.”
David Sparkes, Chief Executive of British Swimming, said: “Swimming appeals to everyone and the work we have done in driving towards our Intermediate Equity Award shows that we are driving down barriers to encourage everyone to get engaged in the sport as an athlete, volunteer and coach.'
-ENDS-
For further details contact Dave Richards, British Swimming Media Manager, on 01509 632237, 0778 992 6136 or email dave.richards@swimming.org
The Amateur Swimming Association is the English National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Open Water, and Synchronised Swimming. It organises competition throughout England, establishes the Laws of the Sport and operates comprehensive certification and education programmes for Teachers, Coaches and Officials as well as its renowned Learn To Swim Awards scheme. The ASA supports 1,220 affiliated swimming clubs through a National/Regional/County structure. The ASA aims to ensure everybody has an opportunity to learn to swim.
www.britishswimming.org
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain. It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association) British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
UK Sport
UK Sport works in partnership with national governing bodies and distributes National Lottery funding each year through the World Class Events Programme to support their bidding and staging costs, as well as providing specialist technical support. Since 1997, UK Sport has supported more than 80 events of World, European and Commonwealth status
www.uksport.gov.uk
About Speedo®
Synonymous with swimwear, the iconic brand celebrates 80 years of dominance creating revolutionary new technologies, designs and innovations. In the 1920s Speedo® made history with the Racerback: the world’s first non-wool suit. In 2008 Speedo® redefines swimwear again with Fastskin® LZR RACER® - the fastest and most technologically advanced swimsuit ever created; meanwhile designer collaborations with Comme des Garçons put Speedo® at the cutting edge of design. As the world’s leading swimwear brand, Speedo® is passionate about life in and around the water, supporting swimming from beginners through to elite level, including the phenomenal Michael Phelps. Speedo® is owned by Pentland Brands and distributed in over 170 countries around the world; to find out more visit: www.speedo.com. SPEEDO, the ARROW device, LZR PULSE and LZR RACER are registered trade marks of Speedo Holdings B.V. The LZR RACER suit has worldwide design rights and patents pending.
