Ice stars join Sportscotland High Performance Programme
On the back of finishing 1st and 2nd at the British Championships, Natasha McKay and Karly Robertson have been handed a huge boost as they continue to work towards Olympic selection for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Both skaters have been invited to join Sportscotland’s high performance athlete programme working with experts at Dundee’s Regional Performance Centre.
Natasha and Karly both train under world renowned coaches Simon and Debi Briggs at Dundee Ice Arena. They are part of the Ice Dundee team supporting the athletes on and off the ice. With support from donations and a £15,000 grant from Sportscotland earlier this year, Ice Dundee has started to build a strong on and off ice system for athletes. The system is based on 2 stages – the first stage being the talent pool and stage 2 progression to Sportscotland Institute of Sport Support.
Simon Briggs, Director of Skating, is delighted with this opportunity:
“We are building a very strong system and infrastructure in Dundee to support our goal of developing world class skaters. Tash and Karly have worked very hard to reach this point and the support they have had from the Ice Dundee team including Chris Simpson, Andrew Smith, Sabrina Simpson, Heal Physiotherapy and Sam Wood has been invaluable. This team will continue to play a key part in their future. The integrated, world class performance services, this new opportunity opens up is extremely exciting as they target the next Olympics. This support also allows us to bring more talented skaters into our Talent Pool to access the support and services we have in place. This is a great step forward as we build Ice Dundee as a centre of excellence for the long term.”
Colin Robertson, Institute of Sport High Performance Manager said “We are delighted to support and work with the Performance Coaches at Ice Dundee to add value to the efforts of both Natasha and Karly on their drive towards Olympic selection. They have achieved high standards to date and with both being No1 and No2 at GB level there is a great opportunity to build on this momentum. We will be providing professional performance services to both figure skaters including strength & conditioning, nutrition, medical and physiotherapy from our institute staff based at the new Regional Performance Centre in Dundee.”
