The Athletics & Cycling Education Trust (ACE Trust, formerly the Athletics Foundation Trust) identifies aspiring, gifted young athletes and cyclists from around South Africa and enables them to receive an holistic education while at the same time being able to develop their sporting potential.
The ACE Trust supports high school learners who are primarily from disadvantaged backgrounds. Talent is scouted from all corners of the country with a focus on rural areas and marginalised resource-poor communities.
Structures and systems have been created to educate, support and develop learners into elite athletes making this a unique and specialised high performance youth development programme.
The ACE Trust views progress in academic performance as being of equal importance to progress in athletic/cycling performance. Both are necessary requirements to be considered for support by the ACE Trust. A range of criteria are used to assess applications for bursary support. These include:
Bursaries are available for gifted athletes and cyclists at TuksSport High School in Pretoria (English medium) and for athletes at Hoërskool Stellenbosch (Afrikaans medium). Bursaries cover:
Clinics are hosted annually around Gauteng and Western Cape where young athletes are considered for a bursary to our programmes.
Sport is recognised as a universal language that transcends boundaries and has been shown to break down barriers. South Africa has a rich history of athletic success yet, in recent years, the sport floundered as there was no effective system for long term athlete development. While some sports have professionalised and progressed, many Olympic sports struggle for funding.
Mechanisms are generally not in place for athletes or cyclists with exceptional talent to be identified and developed to reach their potential as world class athletes. Without comprehensive and all-round high-performance coaching and support, aspiring athletes from poor or marginalised communities literally have no hope of achieving their potential.
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