Scotland’s recently-crowned world champion windsurfer, Islay Watson, has been named in Team GB’s squad for the upcoming Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
She will be among 42 British athletes, aged between 14 and 18, who will compete in 17 sports from October 6 to 18.
Watson, 17, from Aviemore, won the Youth World Championships in the RS:X class in the United States last month and has already made serious waves in her sport.
Now, she will be looking to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Tom Daley, Jade Jones and Duncan Scott who all went on to win medals at an Olympic Games having first competed at a Youth Olympics.
The Scottish star said yesterday: “It’s pretty awesome – it’s going to be an amazing experience.
“It’s going to be totally different to anything else I’ve done and I am really looking forward to it.
“The Youth Olympics only comes round once every four years, so to get picked to go is a real honour.
“It has been a pretty mad year for me – I’ve done so many events, but somehow everything has fallen into place, and the Youth Olympics is the icing on the cake.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better way to round off the year.”
The event will feature almost 4,000 of the world’s most talented young athletes from 206 nations, and is the third edition of the Games following Singapore 2010 and Nanjing 2014.
Mahdi Choudhury, Team GB’s chef de mission, said: “Being selected to Team GB for a Youth Olympic Games is a fantastic achievement and our 42 young athletes should be hugely proud to be heading out to Argentina next month.
“It will offer a fantastic opportunity for our team to experience a multi-sport event for the first time and I’m sure it will act as a great springboard for their own senior Olympic dreams.”
