Kelly: Whyte move will fill ‘biggest void in Irish sport’
Kelly, who is executive chairman of the IIS, said Ireland had for too long lagged behind the market leaders of sports science in Australia and Europe.
Both the Sydney Review and Athens Review found there was a gap in the Irish system at the highest level in terms of athlete support.
The appointment of Professor Whyte aims to address that.
“The impact of sports science is about 1% of the total,” said the Englishman yesterday. “In the environment of elite sports, small things can make a big difference and that can be the difference between standing on the grass and standing on the podium.
“This is not about reinventing the wheel. Rowing and boxing, for example, have quality structures in place and I am not coming in with a new brush to sweep things clean. There are examples of poor services as well, however, and I will be working with all the bodies to bring about success. This is very much a joint effort.”
Professor Whyte, who is the first of four key appointments at the recently established IIS, will be responsible for co-ordinating delivery of sports science services to Ireland’s elite athletes. This will include nutrition, psychology, strength and conditioning, performance analysis, biomechanics and exercise physiology.
He will also work on identifying the needs of individual athletes in co-operation with their sport’s own performance directors, and ensuring each athlete is supported by a team of experts working together to maximise his or her performance.
Recognised as one of Britain’s foremost research scientists, he has enjoyed a distinguished career as a sportsman and academic. He was also a modern pentathlete and has won medals at Olympic, world and European levels.
A widely published researcher, he has worked as a consultant physiologist to a number of sports teams, including Benetton Formula One, Subaru Rally, UK Olympic squads and football clubs like Liverpool and West Ham. He is Professor of Applied Sport and Exercise Science at John Moore’s University in Liverpool, and from 2004 to 2006 was national science co-ordinator for the English Institute of Sport.
He also coached Little Britain star, David Williams, who won a special award at last year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards after raising over £1m for charity for his swim across the English Channel.
Though his contract will initially runonly as far as next year’s Beijing Olympics, Kelly was delighted to be able to appoint a candidate so qualified at a time when such available expertise is thin on the ground.
“It takes time to find world-class candidates,” said the former GAA president.
“We are in the middle of an Olympic cycle and a lot of people are already in situ. Although we are looking to Beijing and beyond, it would be a mistake to think that this is all about the Olympics and Olympic sports, but that is the starting point.
“Greg will also be expanding his role to all sports in this country.”
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