Leonie Cooil and Trevor Taubman have been appointed to head up Team Isle of Man in the athletes village at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
As Chef de Mission, Leonie will take overall responsibility of the whole Games Village team and will be Team Isle of Man’s contact with the organisers, the Commonwealth Games Federation and the team’s senior management outside of the village.
Trevor will be general team manager handling the athletes, sports team managers and coaches. Both have a wealth of experience as competitors at multi-sport events and team management at Commonwealth Games level.
As a member of a well-known Manx swimming family, Leonie has been involved in competitive sport from a young age. She was appointed swimming team manager for the 2011 Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games, the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the Samoa 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games and was also team leader at the Samoa Games.
She commented: ‘I am excited and honoured to have been appointed Chef de Mission for the Isle of Man team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games being held on the Gold Coast.
‘The Isle of Man has so many talented athletes in a range of sports and I am looking forward to working with them, their coaches, team managers and our medical support staff over the next two years as we prepare for the 2018 Games.
‘We will continue to represent the island on the international stage and show the rest of the Commonwealth that we are a force to be reckoned with!’
On retiring from competitive shooting, Trevor was appointed shooting team manager and assistant team manager at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, followed by general team manager in Delhi 2010, team leader at the 2011 Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games and general team manager for Glasgow 2014.
Trevor said: ‘I am delighted to have been appointed as general team manager for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast.
This will be my third team manager appointment and I’m sure, following on from Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014, the Isle of Man team can continue its success.
‘We are fortunate in having very talented, experienced Great Britain and world class athletes in many of our sports. I’m sure they will work hard to ensure our medal successes of Delhi and Glasgow and the Samoa Youth games continue.’
Since being invited to attend the 1958 Cardiff Games, the Isle of Man has won three gold, two silver and six bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games and three silver and one bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games.
On several occasions the Isle of Man has headed the medal table per head of population proving that on the international stage Team Isle of Man punches way above its weight.
From April 4-15 in 2018, Queensland’s Gold Coast will host the 21st Commonwealth Games. It will be the fifth time Australia has staged the Games and it will comprise 12 days of competition in 17 sports with more than 6,500 athletes and team officials from more than 70 nations competing.