Helping Young Elite-Level Athletes
Sports can also be a powerful economic tool when it enables the talented few to earn a substantial living from their athletic gift. Successful athletes assist their immediate and extended families, many invest in local business ventures and some establish charitable foundations or contribute to local schools.
A Running Start Foundation sponsors the top youth/junior training camps in East Africa, which now house, feed and/or coach about 300 of the most talented young runners in the world. In Ethiopia we sponsor the youth sports club in Bekoji that produced Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba. In Kenya we sponsor the camp managed by Colm O'Connell at St. Patrick's High School in Iten, which has produced two Olympic Champions, six World Champions and 15 junior World Champions. In Arusha, Tanzania we sponsor the top training camp for girls, who benefit enormously from an emphasis on sports and education in contrast to traditional roles and early marriage. In Uganda we established the top-ranked elite camp in the country. We are pleased to say that 10 graduates of the camps we sponsor competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
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Coach OConnell addressing the athletes after a work-out.