Lord Coe visits Lisburn’s legacy

LORD Sebastian Coe said that the City of Lisburn Salto National Gymnastics Centre is a “fantastic legacy” of the London 2012 Olympics.
Lord Coe during his visit to Salto Gymnastics Centre in his role as Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Ambassador, with Lisburn Mayor, Alderman William Leathem, Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín, Tony Byrne, Salto, Dame Mary Peters, Cllr Thomas Beckett and Brian Henning, Sport NI. Picture by Brian Thompson/ Press EyeLord Coe during his visit to Salto Gymnastics Centre in his role as Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Ambassador, with Lisburn Mayor, Alderman William Leathem, Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín, Tony Byrne, Salto, Dame Mary Peters, Cllr Thomas Beckett and Brian Henning, Sport NI. Picture by Brian Thompson/ Press Eye
Lord Coe during his visit to Salto Gymnastics Centre in his role as Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Ambassador, with Lisburn Mayor, Alderman William Leathem, Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín, Tony Byrne, Salto, Dame Mary Peters, Cllr Thomas Beckett and Brian Henning, Sport NI. Picture by Brian Thompson/ Press Eye

Lord Coe paid a visit to Salto Gymnastics Club on Tuesday as part of his role of Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Advisor to the Prime Minister, having previously officially opened Salto’s Lisburn state of the art facility in 2007.

Lord Coe, who was accompanied by Dame Mary Peters, Salto management and staff, including Salto CEO Tony Byrne, Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín and Lisburn City Council representatives, toured the popular club, which proudly hosted the Gold medal winning Chinese Olympic team ahead of last summer’s Games.

Speaking about Lisburn’s lasting legacy from the Games and how Salto represents the spirit of the Olympic legacy, Lord Coe commented: “For me, I’ve seen the whole project right the way through because I came to the old club back in 2004/2005, when we were bidding and I got to know Tony and soon realised what an extraordinary and inspirational figure he was locally both in sport and in the community and we sort of made a deal, he said if you win in Singapore and get the right to stage the Games, I’ll build a world class gymnastics centre. He then invited me back to open it and I just thought this was the right moment to come back. I came back before the Games but I thought this was the right time to come back post the Games, just to see what is happening. He’s now got 800 people in the club, he’s got a waiting list of about 800, so this is a fantastic legacy story.”

With Lisburn having been designated as European City of Sport for 2013, the city is fast building a reputation as a place of sporting excellence.

Lord Coe continued: “It’s fantastic to be in a community that really gets sport. It’s the first United Kingdom city to become a City of Sport.

“I’m a great believer in partnerships. I think Tony would be the first to agree that everything we see here is in large part driven by him, but it couldn’t have been done without the support of the Mayor and local authority and the Ministry, the Sports Minister here this morning and Mary Peters, it’s really the family came together to make sure that young people have opportunities for the next generation.”

Last summer’s London Olympic Games were hailed as a success across the globe as we witnessed the world’s greatest athletes in action, whilst for Team GB there was medal glory and performances that will be sure to inspire the next generation of sporting stars.

“It was a fantastic success,” Lord Coe stated, “but also one of the things we wanted was to engage more broadly around the world and to have the powerhouse of world gymnastics coming to this city to use these facilities and the ability to sit young impressionable gymnasts and coaches to watch what the best in the world are doing, is a fantastic opportunity. Again, it’s everything we wanted off the back of the Games.

“We always saw the legacy as being the second half of the journey, it’ll be a tough one but I think we’re in good shape.”

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