A Question of Sport

Thursday, 18 June 2009

Throughout 2009 - in partnership with athletesDIRECT - we'll be featuring Q&As with different elite performers on topics ranging from memories of their schooldays to what tips they have for aspiring young athletes.

In the second Q&A of the year, we grab a chat with Craig Heap who had a long and distinguished gymnastics career.

Now a ChangingLIVES athlete mentor for the Youth Sport Trust, Craig competed for 20 years in junior and senior British championship titles, five World Championships, two Commonwealth Games and the 2000 Olympic Games.

Click here to read about the highs and lows of Craig's life in elite sport.

Craig Heap joins ex-platform diver Leon Taylor, British Disabled Skier Talan Skeels-Piggins, World and European Champion Kayaker, Tim Brabants, England hockey player Hannah Macleod, Olympic silver medallist Campbell Walsh, former England international footballer Earl Barrett, ex-Great Britain rower Pete Gardner, British female wheelchair basketball player Clare Strange, modern pentathlete Kate Allenby , British gymnast Beth Tweddle, top track rider Bryan Steel and former Great Britain swimmer Karen Pickering.

athletesDIRECT is a Youth Sport Trust quality-assured athlete introduction service for schools, run by the British Athletes Commission. An athlete visit can inspire and motivate pupils and their stories and experiences of sport and life can illustrate many different messages.

Schools can use an athlete visit for a number of purposes, including:

• To open a new school building

• To participate in an awards ceremony

• To act as a mentor or motivational speaker

• To participate in a school fundraising event

Click here to find out more about athletesDIRECT.