Giving Back to Track

Welcome to Giving Back to Track

Giving Back to Track is a not-for-profit founded by Olympic athletes, Eilish McColgan and Michael Rimmer, to inspire children from all backgrounds to enjoy athletics. Our aim is to encourage kids in Scotland to lead an active lifestyle and to essentially give back to the sport that has given us so many incredible opportunities throughout our careers.

No child should be priced out of athletics, so our hope is that Giving Back to Track can be an avenue to provide support to individuals who need it the most – whether that be covering the cost of track facilities, buying training kit or paying for club fees.

Giving Back to Track will start locally with Eilish’s home club of Dundee Hawkhill Harriers but we hope to extend this across the rest of Scotland as we continue to grow and evolve.

Our Plans

There will be two main avenues of support – Female Athletes and Community Athletics.

Eilish McColgan Scholarship

This scholarship fund has been created to support female athletes across Scotland, aged 16-22 (U17, U20, U23 age groups) and will be open to all abilities. The programme will run for one full year and individuals are encouraged to apply on the link below, if they compete within track and field or in the sport of running. We are looking for inspirational, young women – so if that sounds like you – get in touch!

The scholarship will support athletes with:

£500 towards travel and competition expenses

Polar GPS watch for training

Professional Athlete Kit drop from ASICS, containing shoes and clothing for training and competition

Gifted packages

Advice and support from Eilish

Applications are now open – apply below:

APPLY HERE

Inspire Female Coaching Grant

At every Olympic Games, that both Eilish and Michael have attended, there has not been a single woman on the athletics coaching staff. Zero. And in recent years, it was flagged that only two female coaches had athletes supported on the World Class Performance. These are stats we want to change, by encouraging and supporting more young women into Athletics Coaching.

Our Inspire Coaching Grant will support two individuals to gain their Scottish Athletics Coaching qualifications – so that they can give back, inspire and coach the next generation of youngsters.

APPLY HERE

Travel & Training Grant

As a talented athlete living in Scotland – travel to competitions can be a challenge. Especially when the British Championship are held in England every year! From our initial scholarship applications, we saw a common theme, that for many individuals a large barrier to competing in a higher-level competition was the cost of travel.

For 2022, we have granted SIX incredible female athletes with a travel grant and hope to extend this to more individuals in 2023.

Community Athletics

Giving Back to Track will be supporting Primary Schools in opening up FREE after-school clubs. We believe that no one should be priced out of the sport and so we will be working alongside Athletics Clubs and Regional Active Schools; giving everyone the chance to try athletics.

Our first club is already up and running in Balgarthno Campus, Dundee with plans to extend to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

More Information Coming Soon

The Courier/Evening Tele, CR0039083, News, Cheryl Peebles story, Commonwealth gold medallist and Olympian Eilish McColgan returns to Dundee for the first time after her incredible season to celebrate with city children. She will meet children benefiting from the support of Giving Back to Track at Balgarthno Campus, the not-for-profit charity she has launched. Picture shows; Eilish McColgan with the kids from Camperrdown Primary and St Clements RC Primary. Tuesday 25th October, 2022. Mhairi Edwards/DCThomson

Opportunity Fund (Regional)

We are excited to create our first regional Opportunity Fund with the Dundee Hawkhill Harriers. Our opportunity fund is a bursary to support young athletes; ensuring that the cost of joining the club and attending weekly track sessions are not a potential barrier for participation in athletics.

Five places will be open to both male and female athletes at the Dundee Hawkhill Harriers – with athletes being nominated by the clubs’ trustees.