On the 26th of May we attended the Youth Sport Stakeholder Forum in the National Indoor Arena. We were invited after our project, the magic feather, won prizes at the PE Expo. The meeting started at 12 O’clock. Before that there was a tour of facilities at 10:30. Michael oversaw showing us around the facilities. Our first stop was the gymnastics centre. It was huge, gigantic even, Michael then talked about the history of it and its purpose for the high performance athletes. Next, he took us to the indoor, outdoor football pitch, where he talked about how it was built and the idea behind building it, once again it was gigantic. When the forum began, it started with the Minister of Sport, Jack Chambers, talking about what his job includes and what he wants to improve for the future.
After that, there were round table discussions. Each table had a question that was printed out on the centre of the table. Our question was to do with how technology has helped us in sport. We had half an hour to discuss this and had to present our answers.They provided us with food for a snack such as granola bars, fruit, fruit shoots, and Capri suns. Our personal favorite was the Capri suns. For lunch they gave us chicken curry, it was nice. We also got brownies and muffins from the bakery. After lunch, there was a Q & A with the Minister of Sport which was really nice as people got to ask him questions and voice their concerns about things such as new sporting facilities or accessibility.
When the Q & A was over, there were 6 young people doing presentations on their experiences in sport and things they think should be improved. One of the presentations was a swimmer talking about the experience he went through and the challenges he had to face. We enjoyed this segment as we learned a lot of new things. There was a girl from Ukraine who came with her translator to talk to us about her experience in Ukraine playing volleyball. She spoke about how she is now continuing to play over here and why she likes it. She told us how she came from a sporting background as her parents are basketball coaches. She was delighted that she could continue with her volleyball in Ireland after having come here as a refugee at the start of the war in Ukraine.
Kellie Harrington came up to the stage to deliver her speech about why and how she got into boxing. It was very motivational and inspirational. We got to ask her questions about her boxing experience. We really enjoyed it, Kellie was so nice and down to earth. After her speech we got to talk to Kellie and took pictures. We got a picture with her and we wore her Tokyo Olympic medal and held her World Championship medal. Overall, it was a really great experience to go. We enjoyed meeting all these new people. Meeting Kellie Harrington was unexpected but also a great surprise.
By Lauren Coughlan and Posi Oshundaro
