Young Ambassadors meet up at Edinburgh conference

Around 100 young people met up at Tynecastle Stadium this week at the first of the 2023 Young Ambassador conferences, part of a sportscotland programme.

The Young Ambassadors project is funded by the National Lottery and has been set up to equip participants as future leaders in sport.

Rhona McLeod, former athlete and broadcaster, hosted the day sharing her views on the relationship between sport and developing key leadership skills. The conference was opened and closed by young ambassador Caitlin McFall, a pupil at Auchmuty High School in Glenrothes, who shared her experiences of the programme in a Q&A session with Rhona.

Caitlin said: ‘’It was really great to be given the chance to host this Young Ambassador conference. Getting to bring some new experiences and being able to pass on my own knowledge onto them and maybe one day become part of the delivery team. I also was able to develop my own knowledge and skills that I hope to use in the future.”

One highlight of the Young Ambassadors conferences is the involvement of well-known Scottish athletes from across different sports. The Young Ambassadors at Tynecastle were joined by Birmingham 2022 Gold medal winning Judo athlete, Sarah Adlington, who shared a bit about her journey as an athlete as well as some inspiring stories to the group of Young Ambassadors and helped them prepare for their time as role models within their schools.

Sarah said, ‘It has been fantastic to see all of the enthusiasm from all of these young people and I think it is so good that this is now two fold, that these guys here have the experience and then they will go back and open up more opportunities for people in their schools to try a new sport or activity that they love. ’’