The Bermuda Olympic Association will host a special conference for Board members of Bermuda’s various sports governing bodies to promote the long-term development of the island’s athletes this weekend.

Hosted and organised by the BOA’s Standards Committee, the Long-Term Athlete Development Conference will provide attendees with training and tools to assist NSGBs in fostering the development of athletes from their initial interest in sport through to preparation for national and international-level competition.

Its objective will be to increase the number of athletes being developed to elite levels, and improving the quality of the support they enjoy throughout their athletic careers.

The Conference also seeks to improve the partnership between NSGBs and the Standards Committee, and create dialogue and formal feedback mechanisms between the NSGBs and BOA.

André Lachance, of Sport for Life Canada, will lead the Conference.

An expert in the field of athlete development, Lachance has been with Baseball Canada since 2001 serving as business and sport development director and head coach of the women’s national team.

He is also a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, and has led several CS4L Summits on Competition Review, and has helped several organisations on Long-Term Athlete Development implementation, competition reviews and other related projects.

Lachance is also the recipient of the nationally respected Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal given by the Canadian Government for contributing significantly to Canadian sport system.

Katura Horton-Perinchief, the BOA standards committee chair, and BOA executive board member, said: “The Standards Committee is the arm of the BOA that is responsible for the approval of qualification standards, the dissemination of performance-based funding and the recommendation of athletes who will be named as members of Team Bermuda for the major multi-sport festivals such as the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games and the Olympic Games.

“With the relatively recent addition of the youth versions of the aforementioned sporting events to our remit, the BOA has been charged with taking a more active role in assisting NSGBs with the development of young athletes rather than simply relying on them for the talent identification of elite adult athletes.

“This shift has birthed a need for more robust planning processes both at the NSGB level and the BOA level in order to best prepare our young athletes as they represent Bermuda on the world stage.

“We are excited to host this weekend’s conference in the hopes that collaboration and education at the early stages of an athlete’s career will reinforce the great work that NSGBs are already doing to introduce young athletes to sport and to keep them engaged through a lifetime of sporting activity.”