Performance sport

As a small nation Scotland regularly punches above its weight, delivering world-class  performances on the international stage.  At sportscotland we want to help provide opportunities for everyone to be able to progress in sport and achieve their full potential.

A huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes to help Scots progress along the sporting pathway. You can find out about the performance development work sportscotland and its partners do in About Us.  And there are useful links on the right to the sports agencies that each play an important role in performance sport in Scotland.

sportscotland Institute of Sport

The sportscotland Institute of Sport is the high performance arm of sportscotland. Launched in 1998, it provides performance planning expertise and individually tailored programmes for Scottish Governing Bodies and athletes.

For more information visit www.sisport.com

Athletes

Scotland currently has around 800 athletes in performance development programmes across a broad range of sports. Within these ranks are Scottish, European and World Record holders, Commonwealth Games medallists, Olympians and Paralympians.

There are also around 1,000 athletes supported through national squads and more than 2,000 athletes in regional squads.

The main source of support for athletes is their sport's governing body. The governing body will normally run competitions and squads and will provide a range of support services to their athletes.

The sportscotland Institute of Sport provides high performance expertise to Scotland’s best athletes, around 200 individuals at present. There are six Area Institutes of Sport that offer sport, education and lifestyle services to Scotland’s developing talent, some 400 athletes.

For more information on funding for athletes, visit the funding section.