Ambassador at the ISF World School Championship

Challenges

Retain players for transition from the junior division at school to senior clubs
Promotion of Ultimate: media coverage, inspire and recruit

Background

Ultimate played by around 10 000 pupils at school in France, is still underrepresented in the media and therefore role models and inspiring stories are hard to find for young athletes. It is important to share stories of high profile athletes to encourage girls and boys with similar backgrounds. Moreover, making elite athletes accessible through social media could be the way forward to representation.

Case Study

The International School Sport Federation (ISF) entrusted the organisation of the 1st World Schools Championship of Ultimate to Union Nationale du Sport Scolaire (UNSS) in collaboration with the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), held in Le Mans, France in June 2019.
UNSS is a French sport organisation that aims to promote and encourage sport activities at school. This structure allows pupils to participate in any sport activities 3 hours per week within their school. UNSS chooses ambassadors in different sports to represent and support their values and advocate for universal access to sport.

This event hosted 10 teams from 9 countries who competed during 5 days in the Mixed division. Ludovic Romano, UNSS committee member and La Roche Fus'yon Ultimate player (La Roche sur Yon, France), recruited ambassadors to be present during the tournament. To share our Ultimate values, it was important that the ambassadors represented a positive inspiration, were international players, showed examples of hard working people who invested themselves to get to the top and people engaged with youth division. Female and male gender was asked at this event, although non-binary and transgender athletes are yet to be represented.
Aline 'Rasta' Mondiot is captain and player for YAKA (Noisy-le-Sec, France) and France Women's team, and former Eurostar player. Stève Bonneau is a former coach and player of Royal Montreal (Canada) and France Men's team.

Their aim and role during the tournament were to interact with as many people as possible, share stories through coaching sessions and social events. They had to be seen and easy to reach by all participants. It was an opportunity to discuss in one-to-one with the young participants but also their coaches and teachers, with an emphasis on female coaching in Ultimate, how to develop, how to plan a season, the challenges met in different countries ..etc

The impact of the ambassadors during the event meant for everyone to discuss directly with someone with similar background and challenges. Aline is involved to be the Ultimate ambassador for UNSS and her presence on social media maintains a link with the young athletes from around the world.

Relevant Links

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