The Sports Performance Department is located at Wide Lane and provides bursaries for over 70 high performance athletes and 10 of the Athletics Union teams.
The Sports Performance Centre (SPC) is a training centre for the University’s elite athletes, working in partnership with the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme that supports a further 20 performance athletes.
Their facilities include four Olympic lifting platforms, a full free weights area and testing and analyses equipment. The sports developed through the SPC include sailing, goalball, tchukball, netball, hockey and wheelchair basketball. They also support the sailors of the Artemis Offshore Academy.
The bursary athletes have had a myriad of successes over the years. A Gold Medal was won by Xu Lijia in the Chinese Women’s Laser Radial at the London 2012 Olympics, with Paralympian Adam Knott competing in Goalball. Annabel Vose won Gold in the Student Yachting World Championships, the Student Match Racing World Championship and the University Yachting Nationals. Bleddyn Mon has worked and sailed with Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR).
Adam Knott, Paralympic Athlete and Gold Bursary recipient for Goalball, said:
“The Strength and Conditioning coaching at University of Southampton has been invaluable to helping me reach my full potential as an elite athlete.”
Applications are still open for 2015/16 bursaries. Information about eligibility can be found on the Performance Sport website.