Inside Welsh Sport

A podcast with athletes Jazz Carlin and Jamie Baulch.

Sport Wales' Head of Insight and Policy speaks with Dr Larissa Davies about her research approach to demonstrating the value of sport.Larissa is a Reader in Sport Management within the Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University. Her research focuses on the economic and social impact of sport, leisure and major events. She has specialised in using Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis to measure the value sport and physical activity, including producing the first ever SROI evaluation of Sport in Wales, published in 2018.

We visit Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Evan James in Pontypridd to discuss how useful they found the School Sport Survey they completed in 2018. We find out what they make of their bespoke results and what their next steps are to ensure that every pupil can be a part of an active nation and have a lifelong enjoyment of sport.

In 2018, around 120,000 young people in Wales took part in the School Sport Survey - the biggest survey of sport and young people in the UK.The results provide a fantastic snapshot of who takes part in sports and why.Here, Sport Wales' CEO Sarah Powell and Head of Insights and Policy Owen Hathway discuss the main findings.

There are lots of reasons for the rise in young disabled people taking part in sport but the chief executive of Disability Sport Wales has told the latest Sport Wale Podcast that ‘sport is now a viable option’.The 2018 School Sport Survey found significant rises in participation amongst those people who classed themselves as having an impairment – with 45% now taking part in sport three times a week or more compared to 40% in 2015.Here, Fiona Reid (CEO of Disability Sport Wales) and Owen Hathway (Head of Insight and Policy at Sport Wales) discuss the current state of play and what needs to be done in the future.

In the second part of this special to mark Sport Wales' Our Squad campaign to get more women and girls into sport, Lowri Morgan chats about the physical and mental benefit of sport with hockey and rugby player Ffion Davies, women's only personal trainer, Jin Osborne, Giorgia Rescigno who runs activity sport weekends for women and women's boxing coach, Gemma Price. This is the second of a two-part episode. The transcription of both episodes can be found at oursquad.cymru/blog.

On average, there is a ten percentage point gap between men and women participating in sport and this trend starts early. But why does it happen? And how can we encourage more women and girls to get active. Lowri Morgan is joined by a panel of inspirational women in sport to hear their stories. Ffion Davies, an English teacher who also runs the website Scoop Hockey and plays both hockey and rugby in her spare time. Giorgia Rescigno owns Letzshare - a community for women to try alternative sports. Gemma Price runs a Women’s boxing fitness class, Boxing Pretty and Jin Osborne runs JinFit - a Women’s only fitness company. This is the first of a two-part episode and a transcription of both episodes can be found at oursquad.cymru/blog.

How doing a range of different sports not only helps improve athletes all-round performance, but gives children more confidence and motivation for later in life. Presented by Lowri Morgan.

For over a decade, Wales has enjoyed sporting success and been at the centre of the sporting world. But is there really more than a feel-good factor at play here? Lowri Morgan asks what does sport do for the Welsh economy, for sports participation and for the stars of tomorrow.