Introducing Sparky

Lynsey Brotherton speaks to Stephen Park new head of the RYA's World Class Performance programme

Stephen Park, more commonly known as 'Sparky' in the sailing world was appointed Olympic Manager in December 2001. Promoted from the position of Olympic Development Manager, the 33-year-old Scot fills the position left by John Derbyshire who has moved into overall control of the entire World Class Performance Programme, filling the joint roles of Performance Director and RYA Racing Manager.

"I am honoured to be given the opportunity to lead the world’s most successful Olympic sailing team towards the Athens Olympic Games in 2004," Park said.

Born in Glasgow, Park studied at the Scottish School of Physical Education before moving onto Newcastle University where he gained a Diploma in Management Studies, and later a Masters degree in Recreational Management from Loughborough University. After finishing his studies he went to work for the RYA Scotland (RYAS) and the Welsh Yachting Association (WYA).

His sailing background began with success at the Scottish Schools Sailing Championships in a Mirror dinghy. From there he progressed into the National Youth Squad sailing a 420. In 1992 he went onto trial for a place at the Olympics in the 470 class, and in 1996 in the Tornado. "Having made the decision that I wasn't good enough to win a medal sailing five years ago, the next best thing was to try and make sure I could be involved in the infrastructure ensuring that those who do have the skills, can reach their dreams and ambitions," he explains.

Park firmly believes that his experience of Olympic sailing gives him a balanced understanding of the game and the hardships that are involved. "The key thing right now is that I have a really good understanding of the World Class programme lottery funding and the whole infra structure of British sport which has been going through a lot of changes over the past five years."

Sailing has been helped significantly with the introduction of the World Class Performance lottery funding, enabling the RYA to offer sailors subsistence and equipment awards based on their sailing performance and/or performance potential. Park will be directly involved in overseeing the sailing, training, coaching and support programmes of Team GBR sailors - reviewing funding applications, while also providing and generating good policy within Olympic class activity. Most of that policy is carried out under the auspices of the Olympic Steering Group (OSG), of which Park is now a member.

Despite his new role, Park says that he does not intend to make any radical changes to the programme at present. "We have spent this year trying to consolidate the best assets of the programme that we had running up to Sydney. For now it's just a matter of refining what we have and then changing the one or two bits and pieces that are appropriate. But we're obviously optimising what we have all the time making sure that we're still moving forward."

Plans for the 2004 Games in Athens are already in full swing with a permanent camp at the sailing venue set to be up and running by the summer. "We are currently pretty well set in Athens and in the process of developing the facilities there," he says. The British Team were the first to secure a site at the sailing venue and have had a Met programme running for almost 10 months now.

Park is without a doubt clearly proud of his new position, and according to Derbyshire, a worthy successor. "I am confident he is exactly the right person to lead our Olympic programme on to even greater success, as he brings great experience both as a sailor and a coach to this challenging position."