Communications manager appointed to raise profile of Scottish Institute of Sport

Monday 11 June 2001

The Scottish Institute of Sport today announced that Sarah Floate has joined them as their first full-time Communications Manager, with the remit of bringing a dedicated approach to the way the Institute promotes itself and the top Scottish athletes it supports.

The 36 year old from Peebles brings a wealth of international experience in event management to the post as well as marketing, PR, sponsorship and promotions. Sarah has recently returned from Sydney, Australia where she enjoyed the role of venue manager for beach volleyball at the Olympics and wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics.

A highly motivated manager with over 13 years experience in this area of work, Sarah is looking forward to this latest challenge with the Scottish Institute of Sport. Commenting she said: "I was keen to come back to Scotland and take on a new role where I could make a difference to the future of Scottish sport.

"The Scottish Institute of Sport is clearly starting to make a significant impact through the support services it provides for some of Scotland's top athletes. I very much look forward to being part of this organisation, helping to give the sporting public a clearer picture of what we do and in particular, raising the profile of many of our athletes who don’t always get the recognition they deserve."

Anne Marie Harrison, Executive Director of the Institute, said: "Sarah's appointment is an important next step in the development of the Institute. We are now at a stage where many of the building blocks are in place and we need to be more proactive in our communications and marketing activities, ensuring that we are promoting our athletes to best effect.

"With a long awaited move to a new hub site at the University of Stirling now in the diary for early 2002, we are gearing up to reap the benefits of our first two years work, establishing an effective infrastructure to achieve our goal of 'creating winners'."

• A total of 180 top Scottish athletes have so far been selected to benefit from the support of the Scottish Institute of Sport.
• The seven core sports in the initial phase of the Institute are: athletics, badminton, curling, football, hockey, rugby and swimming. In addition, the very top Scots performers from other sports have been identified and are being invited to be part of the Institute and its programmes.
• The Scottish Institute of Sport is one of a UK-wide network of centres linked through the United Kingdom Sports Institute, ensuring Scottish athletes have access to the very best support wherever they are based.