By Vicki Owen

Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes is being appointed as a non-executive director of travel giant TUI Travel’s education division.

The sporting star, who will begin her new role this month, is expected to ‘bring the board a perspective that will be both helpful in determining TUI’s strategy and challenging to her fellow directors’, according to John Wimbleton, managing director of the specialist and activity sector of TUI Travel.

Kelly, who is also president of The Commonwealth Games England, says: ‘This is my first corporate commercial role, and it is a great opportunity for me to learn more about business. I decided I wanted to sit on the board of The Commonwealth Games England because I thought the only way I can shape and give my passion to something is by working on something I understand, and I have also learned from them.’

She adds: ‘TUI Education shares my passion for empowering children and adults to perform to their best ability. I hope that together we can inspire more young people to achieve their best.’

Ian Finlay, managing director at TUI Education, says: ‘She is a hugely inspirational figure and her achievements speak for themselves – not just on the track but also through her charity, Doublegold. Dame Kelly is a great ambassador for sport, and for the lifechanging educational experiences that TUI Education delivers to its customers.’

TUI Education has more than 30 brands in school expeditions, sport, ski, activity and gap-year travel.

Business career CV:

Director, Double Gold Enterprises Ltd.

President, Commonwealth Games England.

Founder and chair, Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust – Founded in 2008, it was developed to inspire young people to find and fulfil their potential in sport or in life through elite sports performers.

Founder and director, On Camp With Kelly – Founded in 2004, it was set up to mentor the next generation of young middle-distance runners.

Member of The Women Sport and Fitness Commission.

A quick Q&A with Kelly Holmes:

Have you always had an interest in business?

I decided I wanted to sit on the board of The Commonwealth Games England because I thought the only way I can shape and give my passion to something is by working on something I understand, and I have learned from them.

What made you want to join the board of TUI Travel’s education division?

This is my first corporate commercial role, and it is a great opportunity for me to learn more about business.

TUI Education shares my passion for empowering children and adults to perform to their best ability and this ethos is embedded into everything they do, from the way they coach and develop staff, to the trips they provide to hundreds of thousands of young people every year. This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I hope that together we can inspire more young people to achieve their best.

I am very much into the business of developing students through education, outdoor learning and outdoor activity and I think my background in the military also helps with that.

It is not just through academic work that young people need to learn. Activity centres can provide outdoors education where young people can challenge themselves, meet other people and learn about team work.

I recently opened JCA Adventure‘s flagship activity centre under the TUI brand, where young people can experience educational learning through things like assault courses and games with lasers.

You have done quite a bit of work around mentoring young people. Did you ever have a mentor?

Yes. There have always been inspirational figures. One of them was my PE teacher in school. She was extremely motivated and driven and she saw potential in me. Inspirational figures can be anyone that gives you the belief that you can be good at something. It might be something they do, or you might remember something they said. It is good to give young people the opportunities they wouldn’t normally get and open their eyes to other things they can do. Sometimes teachers might see something in a child and realise they are good at something.

My PE teacher told me I had got to do cross country, and I hated it. I thought: ‘Wet wind, cold mud’. But she kept saying: ‘We need you in our team’. I went and I came second against one of the best of my age group. I was about 12 at the time and I thought: ‘Oh my gosh. I want to be better’. I was then encouraged to join the cross country club.

How have you found the transition from sport to business?

There are a lot of similarities – Goal setting, targets, making plans. Whatever level you are at within a company, everyone has a part to play – you are part of a wider team and it is the same in sport. Everyone has to pull together to fulfil full potential.

You can go through tough times in business and you need to know how to pick yourself back up – Think of strengths you have had in the past, eliminate weaknesses, think of how to be better than your rivals.

What will you bring to TUI Travel?

I will speak about the importance of education and travel for young people. I will also be going to events and reporting back and providing a fresh pair of eyes.

TUI Travel is a very large company and has been going for a long time. They are very engrained in what they do. With acquisitions strategy I will be able to say: ‘Does that fit with the TUI group?’.

Sporting career CV:

2006-2008:

National School Sports Champion

2005:

Honoured with a Damehood by the Queen in the New Year’s Honours

Winner of the Laureus World Sports Woman of the Year Award

2004:

Gold Olmypic Games 800m

Gold Olympic Games 1500m

New British record 1500m 3:57.90

1st World Athletics Final 1500m

Winner of Performance of the Year Award at IAAF Gala

BBC Sports Personality of the Year

European Athlete of the Year 2004

European indoor record at 1000m 2:32.96

2003:

Silver 800 metres World Championships

Silver 1500m World Indoor Championships

British record of 4:02.66

2002:

Gold 1500m Commonwealth Games

Bronze 800m European Championships

2001:

Silver 800m Goodwill Games

2000:

Bronze 800m Olympic Games

1998:

Silver 1500m Commonwealth Games

1997:

British record at 1500m 3:58.07

British record at 1000m 2:32.55

1996:

4th Olympic Games 800m

1995:

Silver 1500m and Bronze 800m World Championships

British record at 800m 1:56.21

British record at 1000m 2:32.80

1994:

Gold Commonwealth Games 1500m

Silver European Championships 1500m

>> Take a look at our Parenting section here, or consider a visit to our Under 18s Finances pages, where the’s a host of news, views and advice.

AT nine years old, Georgia Keys is already a veteran of the slopes and her dream is to ski in the Olympics. She has won Alpine ski racing competitions and last year became the under-10s Scottish indoor champion.

Unlike many, her parents Dafina, a magazine publisher, and Stephen, a recruitment consultant, from Marlow, Buckinghamshire, are careful to ensure they are covered for potential mishaps on ski trips.

They have just spent a week skiing in Wildschonau, Austria, using ‘free’ travel insurance through Stephen’s bank. He pays an extra £75 a year to upgrade it to include winter sports cover. The policy is underwritten by insurance giant Axa. Dafina and Stephen made sure it covered them and Georgia before going.

‘Georgia does ski off-piste so it was important this was covered,’ says Dafina, 43. ‘We checked the wording of the policy and luckily we were covered for off-piste skiing with a guide.’ But one in seven skiers and snowboarders does not bother to take out insurance – a gamble because up to a third of those who take it out make a claim after an injury on the slopes.

Even those who do buy insurance can have problems as the majority of policies do not cover off-piste or snow park skiing and snowboarding. Snow parks are custom-built areas where snowboarders can do tricks.

As snow sports enthusiasts hit the slopes this half-term, insurers are warning them to take out cover and read the details carefully.

The Ski Club of Great Britain offers its own policy that includes off-piste and in snow parks. Spokeswoman Betony Garner says: ‘Many skiers automatically buy a winter sports policy online and think they’re covered. The reality is that most cover contains exclusions and skiers can easily come unstuck if they haven’t read the small print.’ The insurer’s definition of off-piste can also be a problem. It covers any area between or around controlled slopes and trails. That means, in theory, that if you are injured when crossing between two slopes, you may not be covered. Also, while some policies cover off-piste skiing, they may require you have a guide at all times.

For many skiers, particularly beginners and those happy to stick to designated slopes, a basic winter sports policy should be sufficient. Expect to pay about 30 per cent more for winter cover than for a standard travel policy. For others, such as snowboarders and those planning hazardous activities, a specialist policy is recommended.

Non-members of the Ski Club can buy its standard policies – both single trip and annual multi-trip – which include off-piste skiing and boarding with or without a guide.

There is a five per cent discount for those who buy online. Individual cover for a week in France would be £32.33. This includes baggage and cancellation cover.

Specialist insurers Travel & General and Snowcard Travel also have policies to cover off-piste skiing and snow parks. In the case of T&G, off-piste skiers must be escorted by a guide.

In the first programme, the athletes take on Huka Huka wrestling with the Kamaiura tribe in Brazil. For 51 weeks of the year the women of the Upper Xingu live quiet, monotonous lives, cooking, cleaning and looking after the children. But once a year this all changes, and during the Yamurikuma festival the women of the tribe assume the roles of men for a week.

The climax of the festival is the annual wrestling competition. The fighting is the Huka Huka style, using the lower body, knees, legs and feet. The village is renowned for having the fiercest fighting women in the Xingu and there is prestige and pride at stake. Our athletes compete against the locals in a knock out contest, to prove that they too have what it takes.

These women lead double lives, taking on feisty personas and even adopting their own unique ‘derby’ names to compete. Their sport? Rollerderby – an aggressive all-female contact sport originally played in Depression-era America – and it is going through a major revival.

I went along to a training session in Bermondsey, East London, and spoke to four of the London Rollergirls (London’s rollerderby league of around 60 skaters) – Dot Slash, Metallikat, Daisy Dioxin and Hula-Gunn – to find out why it is growing so rapidly in popularity.

The sport is played by two all-girl teams skating counter-clockwise on a flat track in a series of ‘jams’. Both teams have five players who wear protective gear and roller skates and they will usually be made up of four ‘blockers’ and one ‘jammer’.

‘Blockers’ lead the pack on the referee’s first signal, and the ‘jammers’ go on a second signal. To get points the ‘jammer’ has to skate through the opposing team’s pack and lap them. ‘Blockers’ have to stop the opposing ‘jammer’ from passing by getting in their way or taking them down with a big shove of the hips. They also defend their own ‘jammer’ who they can assist by pulling or pushing them through the pack.

Rollergirls are taken off for one minute if they commit four ‘minors’ or a ‘major’ rule breach – such as using elbows, forearms or hands, tripping, false starts or ‘insubordination’ (that is back-chat to you and me).

Whilst this is an all-girl sport, the first person I was introduced to was a man. ‘This is Big Cat Merv’, said one of two girls who had shown me into the sports hall after I spotted them outside with helmets attached to their rucksacks. From inside the venue I could hear a droning buzz of skidding wheels, thuds and clunks as skates knocked and kneepads crashed to the floor. It was a little alarming and anyone of a delicate disposition might be put off from the start.

Big Cat Merv, or Dave, as he would be known to non-derby friends and colleagues, is the friendly announcer for London Rollergirls’ competitions, called ‘bouts’. He explained that whilst the teams are all-female, the referees (of which there are ‘ideally seven’) are usually men, and friends and partners both male and female tend to get involved in the running of the sport.

As I sat at the side of the City of London Academy sports hall with Big Cat Merv watching practice ‘jams’ I couldn’t help being amused by the technicalities of the game. ‘Helmet panties’ are put over helmets to indicate the type of player, so a ‘helmet panty’ with a star signifies a ‘jammer’. A ‘jammerless jam’ is when both ‘jammers’ have been sent off for foul play.

But it became clear that there is a lot more to rollerderby than girls with tattoos and fishnet tights going round in circles pushing each-other over. The rollergirls are training three times a week in preparation for their next battle and in July they had their first European tournament.

Daisy Dioxin (real name Nicky Walden), a 31-year old environmental consultant told me: ‘We are working hard to tell the UK about rollerderby and raise its profile because it should be recognized as a serious sport. We have already had sell-out bouts [reaching full capacity of 600, with tickets on sale at £8-10].’

The London Rollergirls’ league has three permanent teams: Steam Rollers (‘steam powered Victorian inventors from an alternative universe’), Suffra Jets (‘rocket powered feminists from the future’), and the UltraViolent Femmes (‘vicious female droogs causing mayhem on the streets of London’).

Competition between them is fierce but friendly, and the girls I spoke to were keen to stress the benefits of competing in an all-female sport.

Daisy Dioxin told me: ‘It is a fantastic release from a stressful day job. It is also great to play a sport with so many likeminded women. Before I took up rollerderby I had no idea how much of a support network it would provide. The rollergirls are like an extended family of sisters.’

Many of the girls find rollerderby a fun alternative to going to the gym to get fit. Dot Slash (real name TJ), used to be figure skater when she was younger, but many of the rollergirls could not skate and did not play sports before they got involved. The 30 year-old IT consultant told me: ‘Rollerderby is very healthy and doesn’t feel like a chore. You can burn 400 calories in just an hour of rollerderby’.

And as for hurting themselves? The girls seem distinctly unbothered. Daisy Dioxin admitted she was intimidated at first: ‘It was quite scary seeing everyone else whizzing around looking confident,’ she told me. But Metallikat (real name Catherine Ord), a 35-year old civil servant said: ‘You don’t often get hurt, and once you have a go at it everyone is really welcoming’.

Hula-Gunn (real name Tamar Hicks – pictured), a 29 year-old rollergirl who works in the music industry told me the rollergirls’ outfits are entirely practical: ‘We wear what we feel comfortable in, just like tennis players wear skirts and vest tops’, and believes people don’t realise how hard they train. Her advice to those thinking of getting involved is: ‘Just give it a try. Come to a bout first to see what it is like and then come and join us!’

Picture credit Suzy del Campo and Colin Evans.

Interested in trying rollerderby?

London Rollergirls:

http://www.londonrollergirls.com/rollerderby

London Rockin Rollers:

http://www.londonrockinrollers.co.uk/

Lincolnshire Bombers:

http://www.myspace.com/lincolnshirebombers

Rebellion Rollergirls (Bedfordshire):

http://www.rebellionrollergirls.co.uk/

Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames:

http://www.blitzdames.com/