Over 220 delegates gathered today at Tulfarris Hotel and Golf Resort, Blessington, for the HPX 2023 Paris Ready Conference, Sport Ireland Institute’s flagship professional development and learning event for high performance professionals who will impact Team Ireland’s performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The biannual event is organised to bring the CEO’s, Performance Directors, Coaches and Sport Science and Medical Practitioners together as a community for two days to exchange knowledge and insights to drive the performance of Irish athletes on the global stage.
This year’s event has attracted a host of speakers from within the Irish system including David Nucifora and Jon Rudd, Performance Directors of the IRFU and Swim Ireland respectively and Neasa Russell, Sport Director with Paralympics Ireland and Team Ireland Chef de Mission for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
There is also a strong international flavour with speakers including Professor Anne Marte Pensgaard of the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences/Norwegian Olympic Training Center; Maurits Hendriks, Head of Sport at Ajax FC; Bertrand Daille and Thierry Dumaine from France’s National Institute of Sport.
“The value of bringing all athlete support personnel together is a real advantage in Ireland and supports the wider Team Ireland ethos that transfers to the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Sport Ireland CEO Dr Una May opening the event.
“As we collectively prepare for Paris 2024, this event is an important milestone for the Irish high performance system.”
Use the Code ‘Team’ to get two tickets for the price of only €50 for Sport for Business Members at next week’s Irish Sport on Social Media Conference.
“HPX 2023 is a key plank of the Sport Ireland Institute’s capability and expertise strategy which supports the professional development of key stakeholders in the high performance system,” added Director of Sport Ireland Institute, Liam Harbison.
“Utilising our established communities of practice model with CEO’s, performance directors, coaches, sport science and medical practitioners, HPX is our biannual linking of each group together to share insights from high performance expertise in Ireland and from abroad.”
“The quality of the speakers this year is exceptional and we look forward to a great learning event.”
“HPX 2023 provides the perfect opportunity to communicate with all our high performance stakeholders, highlighting our progress and fine-tune elements crucial for elevating performances and the experience of Paris 2024,” said Team Ireland Chef de Mission, Gavin Noble.
Six higher education institutions were awarded with Accreditation for Student Athlete Support (ASAS) acknowledging their excellence in dual career support for their student athletes. Full ASAS Awards for 2024-2026 were presented by Dr. Úna May and Liam Harbison to Queens University Belfast, Setanta College, Technological University Dublin, University College Cork and University of Limerick.
ASAS is based on providing equal opportunity to all high-performing student-athletes to combine sport and education and is grounded in the right to education. The accreditation outlines clear dual career criteria that third-level institutes must have in order to receive the accreditation. The accreditation aims to identify and establish a network of accredited institutions who support elite athletes to achieve dual career excellence by applying guiding principles.
