12 year old Finlay and 7 year old Skye from Inverkeithing HS and Inverkeithing Primary became members of Disability Sport Fife (DSF) in 2016 and within a short period of time they have made an immense impression on fellow athletes and coaching personnel. Parents Hailey and Scott hail from Aberdeen and Edinburgh respectively and following a spell in Kinnesswood, the family settled in Inverkeithing eight years ago. Finlay and Skye are the first athletes with achondroplasia to be involved with DSF.
The Davidson family joined the Dwarf Sports Association Uk (Dsauk) 5years ago and became inspired to become active in sports. Each year Skye and Finlay compete at the National Games in Birmingham in a range of sports. In June 2015 mum Hailey was encouraged to develop a Dsauk programme north of the border and consequently create many more opportunities for participants with dwarfism in Scotland. Currently Finlay and Skye are involved in track and field, football, basketball, hockey, boccia, curling, archery, swimming and badminton.
Finlay and Skye are members of the new Scottish region of the Dsauk and participate in a wide range of monthly activities. It was obvious early on that they had a real passion for sport and considerable performance potential. At the 2016 National Games they won 11 medals between them. They became further inspired about disability sport from watching the Paralympic Games from Rio.
Team Davidson are very committed to regular weekly training in Fife. Skye and Finlay pursue their swimming and Taekwon-do interests at Inverkithing HS Community Use School or as it is known to locals “The Wing”. Within the “Wing” the first disability swimming club was established back in the 70s with coach Jean Wilson at the helm. The Inverkeithing Club went on to produce many fine swimmers for the DSF swim squad including William McQueen who became a Paralympic medallist.
Finlay and Skye signed up to DSF last year following involvement with Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and have not looked back since. Their impact on the Thursday DSF run, jump and throws session at Pitreavie, led by coach Pamela Robson, has been massive and their performances have improved accordingly. DSF has nominated Finlay to attend a Classification Clinic hosted by Scottish and British Athletics in Glasgow and they are also signed up to GOGA in Fife. The youngsters are also pursuing an active interest in competitive disability badminton.
The 2017 Dsauk National Games will once again be a focus for the very active and enthusiastic youngsters as well as local and national event opportunities. In addition however they will be travelling to Guelph in Canada in August to compete in the 7th World Dwarf Games as part of the GB team …. a busy but very exciting year for the talented Fife youngsters.
Skye’s ambition is to be a fast runner and compete for GB at the Paralympic Games. Finlay has similar sporting ambitions but at the same time believes that it would be amazing to be an Xbox gamer. Whatever the future holds for these talented Fife youngsters it is definite that they are widely respected within DSF and they have only been with us for a very short period. Hailey and Scott are yet another team of very inspirational Fife parents who are fully committed to the benefits of sport.
Richard Brickley MBE
President Disability Sport Fife