Stephen Park OBE admits he is champing at the bit to get his feet under the table after being announced as Great Britain Cycling Team’s Performance Director.
Park spend 15 years as RYA’s Olympic Manager, overseeing the past four Games cycles and helping Team GB amass 23 Olympic and Paralympic medals.
And earlier this summer the 48-year-old helped Team GB finish top of the sailing medal table at Rio 2016 with two golds and one silver medal.
However, Park will start work at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in the spring of 2017 and is to become British Cycling’s first Performance Director since 2014, and he is looking forward to a new challenge.
Park said: “My time with the RYA has been hugely rewarding and Olympic sailing has evolved enormously during my 15 years as team manager, requiring an inquisitive and innovative approach to stay ahead of the game.
“As top sailing nation at Rio 2016 and following our review process I’m confident the team is in great shape for the Tokyo 2020 cycle, and I would like to thank the British Sailing Team athletes and staff for their unwavering commitment in support of sailing’s medal-winning ambitions during my tenure. “I feel enormously privileged and excited to be given the opportunity to take my experiences into working with another world-leading sport, and look forward to building on the high performance culture at British Cycling.
“My role will be to support the coaches and the support team and enable them to be successful while also aiding the athletes in fulfilling their potential. “Clearly as a sport cycling poses very different challenges to sailing, but it’s a sport I am very passionate about from a personal perspective, and I’m looking forward to meeting its challenges head on and with a highly motivated and experienced group of athletes and support staff alongside me.” Sportsbeat 2016