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Laureus Olympic legend Kelly Holmes visits ‘Future Champs’ project in World Cup city Cape Town
24th March
CAPE TOWN, March 24, 2010 – British Olympic track star Kelly Holmes and South African rugby legend Morné du Plessis have teamed up for an emotional visit to the Future Champs Youth Programme in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
Morné, Laureus World Sports Academy Member and Chairman of the Laureus Sport For Good Foundation South Africa, guided Kelly, a former winner of the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award and now a Laureus Friend & Ambassador, around the project in the sprawling township to the east of the city.
With Cape Town and South Africa about to become the centre of sporting attention as the World Cup takes place there later this year, Laureus is working energetically to enhance the opportunities for youngsters, who might otherwise be drawn into a world of crime and drug abuse, to realise their full potential. By helping youngsters to help themselves, the programme, through sports like rugby and netball, reading clubs, life skills and study groups, offers an alternative to the negative influences of the area.
Kelly Holmes will forever be remembered for one of the greatest achievements in Olympic history. At 34 and the oldest woman in the field, after a career dogged by injuries and disappointments, she won both the 800 metres and 1,500 metres Olympic gold medals in Athens in 2004, a feat only ever achieved by two other women.
Kelly said: “It is wonderful to be here in Khayelitsha today and to see the enthusiasm that these young girls and boys have for sport. I think it is great the way Laureus comes in and supports local projects and communities, by having positive influences in their lives and teaching skills that inspire the young people to be the best they can be. Everything links together and this project proves that sport can be the catalyst that helps change young people’s lives. This is an important time for sport in South Africa and it is right that Laureus is able to use sport to make a difference in disadvantaged areas like Khayelitsha.”
Future Champs was established in Khayelitsha in January 2007. Young people between the ages of 11 to 21 are encouraged, through their schools, to take part in the programme, which runs twice weekly sessions throughout the year. During the visit, project leaders and participants gave a display of their activities to Kelly and Morné.
Morné du Plessis said: “We are delighted that Kelly was able to joins us in Khayelitsha. As one of the greatest sportswomen, we really valued the great input and advice she offered us.”
Kelly’s visit to Cape Town follows on the highly successful 2010 Laureus World Sports Awards held in Abu Dhabi earlier this month. The Awards honour the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of the year and generate support for the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. Proceeds from the Laureus World Sports Awards directly benefit and underpin the work of the Laureus Foundation.
Morné added: “The Awards in Abu Dhabi were highly successful and enabled us to take our message to a new part of the world. Visits by Academy Members and Ambassadors like Kelly to Foundation projects around the world can create a lasting legacy for the young people we are trying to help.”
The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation South Africa supports 12 programmes: Buffalo City Soccer School, Fight With Insight, Free The Youth, Little Champs, PeacePlayers International, Sport for All, Future Champs, Soweto Schools Rugby Project, Indigo Youth Movement, Makomba-Ndlela Youth Movement and the newly established Lungisani Indlela and Johannesburg Cubs. Discovery is the Patron of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Trust in South Africa.