The Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) that has supported a number of Olympic and Paralympic athletes including London 2012 medalists Will Bayley and Aaron McKibbin celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with a reception in London hosted by Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson.
TASS is a Government funded programme that represents a unique partnership between talented young athletes, National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) and the Higher (University) and Further (college/school) Education sector and aims to help its athletes to balance academic life with training and competition as a performance athlete.
Will Bayley was supported by TASS between 2005-2009 and has expressed his gratitude for the funding he received.
“The support I had from TASS as a young athlete was invaluable and really helped me at the start of my career,” said Bayley.
“TASS helped me with the costs of equipment and training camps before I became a funded athlete on the World Class Programme and their support was really important to my development as an athlete. I would like to say thank you to TASS for supporting me and helping me to follow my dream.”
Guy Taylor, National Director of TASS said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate our 10th birthday at such a splendid location as the Houses of Parliament and hosted by Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson.
“TASS began in the autumn of 2003 and since then has given over £30 million in support to over 6000 athletes across 50 sports.
“We are a well-established scheme with a great track record. This is not about talent identification, this is about nurturing athletes who are already known to be talented and are wisely pursuing their education at the same time as a demanding sports career.
“These are exactly the kind of athletes that are surviving on minimal funding, can spend weeks out of training because they cannot afford a physio appointment and need all the help that they can get to stay in the sport as a pipeline of talent for Rio 2016, Korea 2018 and beyond,” concluded Taylor.