Women in Sport

Sophie’s Legacy:- continuing to inspire a generation post 2012

During the London Olympics David Cameron announced that it would not be automatic for British medallists to receive any kind of honour unless they contributed in some way to bequeathing a legacy to the community. Athens and London Judo Olympian, Sophie Cox, was disappointed not to have won a medal, but she is certainly firing on all cylinders in pursuit of fulfilling Cameron’s second criterion.

Sophie has been selected as a Sporting Champion by the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust and by UsGirls, a project developed by Street Games, funded by the Government and Sport England. She has already delivered a very successful judo taster day at the North West UsGirls Rock festival held at Leigh Sports Village. As well as attending these taster session days, Sophie will be visiting local schools, colleges and youth groups. She has helped the project secure a CocaCola bursary which aims to afford young people in disadvantaged communities the opportunities to get involved in new sports, specifically targeting the 14-25 year old age group. Street Games and the UsGirls project have been keen to have Sophie on board as an ambassador to inspire young females to ‘have a go’. This successful bid will help all involved (StreetGames, Usgirls, Sportivate) to develop more outreach work and allow them to do more for the young people within the local community. On the day of the Liegh festival UsGirls tweeted: “Thanks for coming today, you were fab, the girls had a great time!!”

Sophie recently complete the theory and practice to gain her 4th Dan, an honour attained by still relatively few female G.B. judoka. She will be presented with her certificate by Bacup Judo Club Head Coach, Brian Moore, 6th Dan, her long time mentor, on Sunday 18th November during the BiG WeekEnder (for details please see the flyer attached), which is an event designed by Sophie to encourage interest in the Club and in judo.

Sophie has been appointed a sporting ambassador for sustainability for BioRegional, a company heavily involved in the making of the Games and advisors to the Government about sustainability issues regarding the Games and the Games legacy. (please see defra.gov.uk). She recently gave one of the key speeches at the annual meeting of BASIS (British Association of Sustainability in Sport) held at Cheltenham Racecourse. She was asked to the opening of the One Planet Centre at the Royal Albert Docklands Community School and although unable to attend, delivered a video message and sent competition footage of herself. She has been asked by the company to go into schools and the local community and help deliver the message of sustainability in sport. Reactions to her speech at the conference were positive and enthusiastic:Alex John - “inspiring talk today by Sophie Cox at sustainability sports conference.” Nick Roberts: “Listening to Sophie Cox at BASIS sustainability conference. All those character building exercises obviously worked. Really interesting talk.”

In her role as Rochdale Ambassador for Sport, Sophie recently presented the awards and delivered a speech at the Rochdale Training awards evening, a company that mentors and trains young people in apprentice qualifications. Jill Nagy (CEO) said “Thank you for coming Sophie, you made our night! You were brilliant!”.

In addition to judo, Sophie will be involved as a role model with the ESRL and in events for the RFL World Cup in 2013. 2013 is the 20th anniversary of Sophie’s historic game at Wembley when she became the first female to play rugby league on the hallowed turf, thus paving the way for a rule change which has allowed other girls to follow in her footsteps. Halima Kahn (ESRL development officer) hopes to have Sophie at a number of events the first of which is on Sunday 11/11/12, an English Schools R.L. celebration event to be held at the Salford City Stadium. Sophie will be speaking at such events, motivating and inspiring girls and boys to take up sports at all levels, and give insights into the trials, tribulations and joys, of being an elite sports person. Her 4 years in Thailand means that she has unique experience and the time away from elite sport means that she has a wider perspective on life issues than is sometimes the case with elite athletes and she used her experience of life there to telling effect in her speech for BASIS.

Each year the Sophie Cox Medal is awarded to the Year 7 girl player of the match at the Carnegie Cup Championships Schools finals.  She joins some of the greats in RFL in having this honour: Renis Betts, Phil Clarke, Kevin Sinfield, Brenda Dobek and Lisa McIntosh who all have medals named after them. Sophie; “After the Games I had to think carefully about the direction my future would take. I decided that I wanted to continue competing for G.B. as I feel I still have the drive and ambition to win medals; but also to somehow use my experiences to coach and inspire others, particularly vulnerable females, to get involved in sport. It would be unusual for an elite athlete still competing to coach as well but I am determined to have a go at both. I intend to train at Bacup and Kendal Judo clubs and other Judo clubs throughout the North West area. I still feel I can achieve success and add to my 4 European medals. A longer term ambition is to compete at the 2014 Commonwealth Games for England. As I no longer receive funding from the UKSC, and am unlikely to in the near future as I am considered too old for Rio (?) I have returned home and intend to further my ambitions from that base. I will look to get a good result at the British Trials in 2013 at a new weight of 57kg, the weight I competed at in Athens at which point I was ranked 7th in the world and 2nd in Europe. I recently self-funded myself to a World Cup competition in Istanbul, the first for me at this level and in this weight category for a long time, although I have had silver and bronze medals in European Cups in that weight over the last 2 years. I finished 5th, narrowly losing for bronze, but beating the world number 13 along the way. I have to go out and win medals, it’s up to me to prove the doubters wrong. I am very happy that I receive support from friends, family, the judo club and the North West Area, Link4Life and Rossendale MBC. I already coach at the club and at a gym in central Manchester, where I recently did a very successful judo seminar (see blog :Judo or MMA? Fighting Fit seminar by 2x Olympian Sophie Cox bridges the two arts. Quote: “Last friday......” by parttimegrappler.blogspot.com/2012/10/judo-o).

I have become interested in working with MMA fighters and in developing and expanding my knowledge in this area. I think judo still has a lot to offer the MMA world and I know that when I worked with Rosi Sexton, the most famous and most able British female MMA fighter, she was very impressed with what I had to offer.  Getting around to training and events is sometimes tricky as I have to rely on lifts a lot or good old public transport and all the joys that come with it!

I intend to give of my best competitively and in coaching and along the way I hope I can encourage people of all ages and in all walks of life to take part in something new and interesting, be that judo or something else. If I am successful I believe I will have left a positive legacy and be repaying the debt I owe to Mr. Jigaro Kano, the founder of Kodokan Judo, and those who helped to spread the art across the world. Judo is, and will always be, a way of life.”