Kent FANS Scheme (Free Access for National Sports People)

The Kent Countywide F.A.N.S scheme was established in 1998 as an important sports development initiative providing support and encouragement to the County's leading talented and elite sports performers. The scheme aims to provide national level sportspeople with free access at designated off-peak times to a number of the County's leisure and sports facilities for personal training and development.

The Kent Countywide F.A.N.S scheme was established by the 'Kent Association of Leisure and Cultural Officers' in conjunction with Kent County Council's Sports Development Unit and has the full support of Medway Council, and the twelve district, borough and city councils in Kent. Some fifty leisure facilities are involved in the countywide scheme including leisure and sports centres, swimming pools, fitness gyms, artificial / synthetic pitches and athletic tracks plus a range of other specialist and general indoor and outdoor facilities.

Scheme Patron, Ambassadors & Support

Kent FANS is honoured to have Dame Kelly Holmes, Double Olympic Medallist as the Patron of the scheme. Kelly, a keen supporter of the scheme has said, 'I think the FANS scheme is a brilliant idea. I know how much time and energy talented sports performers put into their training.'

A recent development to the scheme, has been to invite past and present members to become ambassadors.

Cathy Gilliat-Smith, Lisa Dobriskey and Oliver Freeman have agreed to take up this role.

Cathy won bronze as part of the England Ladies Hockey team this year at the Commonwealth Games.

Cathy is a current member of the scheme and says 'The Kent FANS Scheme offers excellent support to sports stars of the future, it certainly helped me to win a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne this year! I would definitely recommend any sports person eligible for this fantastic scheme to take advantage of the support.'

Lisa also competed at this years Commonwealth Games and won gold in the 1500m. Lisa is a past member of Kent FANS and believes that the scheme has been invaluable in developing her career as an athlete. She says 'To be the best you need to train like the best and the range and quality of the facilities Kent has to offer allows athletes on the scheme to do just that.'

Olly has had a busy year and has just returned from China competing in the ITU Asian Cup where he came second.

Olly: ‘With the help of the Kent FANS scheme, from the age of 12, I was able to discover and use the newly built Julie Rose Athletics Track to run on, and swim at the Stour Centre and Mote Park Sports Centre. While on the Kent FANS scheme, I progressed from a young aspiring athlete to a National, European and then World Champion.’

To read more about olly's latest achievements,follow this link to access his website.

Phil Lane, the CEO of the British Paralympic Association is a strong supporter of the scheme. He believes 'The Kent FANS scheme provides much needed support to both current and aspiring athletes across all sports. In particular the assurance of access for athletes with a disability to top class facilities will provide a major boost to their capacity to train at the level demanded to reach the standard for Paralympic consideration.'

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