London Youth Games

A round up on the London Youth Games, Europe’s largest event for young people...
Mytime Active coordinate teams in the London Youth Games by working closely with schools and clubs across the Borough.
London Youth Games 2024

Sadly the London Youth Games 24 were due to kick start in November but unfortunately due to bad weather cross country had to be cancelled. A huge shame for Bromley after over 100 young people attended trails to secure a place in the team and were all set to defend the winning trophies from the previous year.  

Over the next 3 months Team Bromley will be entering teams into girls and boys cricket, trampolining and boccia. We will also host a Team Bromley Celebration event for all teams and volunteer team managers to thank them for their support and hard work..

Teams to watch out for are boys hockey, girls and boys athletics, girls and boys swimming, the mixed badminton team and our ParaGames teams which will compete in Paragames swimming at The Spa on the 14th May and athletics and football.  All of these teams finished in a top 3 position last year.

We’re looking forward to another successful and special year as we celebrate 20 of the London Youth Games! Here's a summary of what we've achieved!

 

Team Bromley - Celebrating 20 years of The London Youth Games!

Over the past 20 years, Mytime Active has managed and coordinated Team Bromley’s entry into the London Youth Games. We’ve seen some incredible achievements and sporting success competing within top quality sporting venues across the Capital. Teams and individuals have come together under the guidance of volunteer coaches to perform to their best ability against the toughest competition in London.  Team Bromley’s standards remain high as our teams continue to achieve personal bests and great team performance - all contributing to the overall score for the borough.

Team Bromley have:

  • Won the London Youth Games Jubilee Trophy 10 times
  • Engaged with more than 360 clubs
  • Worked with over 200 schools
  • Recruited and trained 600 volunteers
  • Won over 200 medals
  • Engaged with over 8000 young people aged between 7 – 19 years

Our biggest achievement is winning the Jubilee trophy across 4 consecutive years in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Highlights

Team Bromley at London 2012 Olympics 

2012 was an exciting year for London and Team Bromley participants were invited to attend the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. The entire team were awarded a free ticket as a thanks for representing the Borough in 2012 and watched the likes of Jess Ennis, Mo Farah and Usain Bolt make their mark. The opportunity was hugely inspiring for our young people and created memories that will last a lifetime.

Bromley swimmer represents Great Britain at The Paralympic Games

Following our winning success at the 2008 Games, the London Youth Games, and Greater London Authority (GLA) selected one Bromley competitor to attend the opening ceremony at the Paralympics Games in Beijing. Stephanie King, a member of the Bromley swimming squad was selected after an outstanding performance in the Youth Games Swimming Gala.

Stephanie, a member of Beckenham Swimming Club took part  in The Torch relay which includes lighting the flame in the Olympic Stadium with 4 other young people from around the country symbolising the start of The Paralympic Games.

Stephanie King said “Thank you Mytime for giving me this opportunity to be involved in such a prestigious event. It was an experience I will never forget and I feel so inspired to continue training so I can reach my personal goals of achieving international success”. 

Stepping stone to international success

Team Bromley has given competitive opportunities to young people who then went on to compete at an international level, including:   

Dina Asher Smith – Athletics

The fastest British woman on record participated in the Bromley Schools Cross Country event 2006. She won a place on the team and was soon signposted onto Blackheath and Bromley Harriers Athletics Club. She represented Team Bromley in 2008/9 on the track and attended our annual celebration event at the Pavilion in 2014 and 2016.

Michael Gunning – Swimming

Michael represented both Great Britain and Jamaica and is a former Team Bromley Swimmer. Michael competed in the 200 metre butterfly and the men's 200 metre freestyle event in both the 2017 World Aquatics Championships and 2019 World Aquatics Championships.

Katherine Torrance – Diving

Katherine was one of a handful of youngsters picked from a London wide talent search of some 50,000 school children tested by Crystal Palace Diving Club in 2007. Katherine represented Team Bromley in 2009 in the London Youth Games Diving competition and went onto receive a scholarship from Mytime Active in 2011.  She made her European debut in 2016, Later that year, she won two gold medals and one bronze medal at the World Junior Championship competition.

2023 round up.
Bromley finished in 4th place in the 2023 London Youth Games, we entered a total of 25 teams.

Bromley celebrated the end of the 2023 London Youth Games in July by finishing in FOURTH PLACE against 32 other London Boroughs.  After 9 months of high-quality sports competition this is a massive achievement. 

More than 320 young people either living or educated in Bromley played their part at Europe’s largest sports competition, as did the loyal group of volunteer Team Managers that commit to supporting our Bromley teams.

 Team Bromley managed fourth place because 60% of the teams we entered finished in a medal winning position – which is outstanding. 

Over the course of the 2023 youth games season: -

  • 25 teams were entered in competitions across 15 different sports and from 15 different schools and sports clubs
  • 35 Team Managers gave their time voluntarily to support the teams with training and at competitions. 
  • Team Bromley finished in 4th place on the Jubilee Trophy Score board – 3 points behind 3rd place Havering and 71 points behind the Jubilee Trophy winners Haringey which is an incredible achievement.

Team Reflection - A look at Team Bromley’s success across the entire 2023 season….

  • The 2023 Games started with the cross-country events at Parliament Hill last November 2022… A perfect start - the team of over 80 girls and boys, won double gold! 100 points secured for Team Bromley.
  • In February, the girls and boys team competed in the cricket cup final. It’s always such a tough competition... however the girl’s team from Hayes Cricket Club managed to win a space in the Cricket Cup Final. 
  • The final was played at the home of Cricket, Lords Cricket Ground back in March…An amazing experience for them - and the girls rose to the occasion and finished in 2nd place with silver medals and more points secured for Team Bromley. 
  • From February to May we had the para sports competitions. We had great support from pupils at Glebe School and Browns School, who represented Team Bromley in the para events. We managed to field teams in girls and boys Para swimming and athletics and entered a mixed team into boccia. Competitions took place at venues all over London.  Amazingly every para team entered won medals.  
  • June was the busiest month for our Team Bromley squads, with several competitions taking place each weekend. And of course, culminating on the first weekend of July with the finals weekend at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.
     
Girls Football with Chloe Kelly
Chloe Kelly joining our girls football team

In summary, we had 15 medal winning teams:

  • 6 teams won gold – aquathlon, boys’ athletics, boys’ hockey, girls swimming and of course as previously mentioned both cross country teams.
  • 3 teams secured 2nd place – girls’ cricket, girls para swimming and the boys swim team all came away with silver medals.
  • 6 teams finished in 3rd place with bronze medals - Athletics Girls, para-athletics girls and boys, boys para swimming, badminton and boccia.
  • Other highlights - the netball, kayak, road cycling, girls’ football, girls hockey, boys cricket and trampoline, teams all scored valuable points for team Bromley too.

For more information on being part of the London Youth Games with Team Bromley please email Louise Hills.

For more information:

Contact Bromley’s Borough Team Organiser via email Louise Hills.

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