Sport
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Youth Network for Sport, Development and Peace
Website
Raedene Lucas, 27, has excelled in many aspects of the sport industry, including academia, as an athlete, sport massage therapist and as a sport for development practitioner, using sport as a vehicle to drive societal change. She was a high-performance artistic gymnast for 10 years representing the Western Cape.
Raedene completed her BA in sport science at the University of the Western Cape and continued with her postgraduate in sport for development. Raedene was awarded the Dean’s Merit List Award for the Top Achiever in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences (2018).
She also completed a certificate in massage for sport and fitness and is the founder and director of Raecovery Sport Massage, an organisation dedicated to the injury prevention and recovery of all athletes. She is a master’s candidate investigating the feasibility of introducing gymnastics as an official competitive sport code for persons with disabilities in South Africa.
Raedene is a research assistant to the Unesco Chair for Sport, Development, Peace and Olympic Education at the University of the Western Cape (Interdisciplinary Centre for Sport Science and Development). She is also serving as the chairperson for the Youth Network for Sport for Development and Peace.
- MPhil Sport for Development, University of The Western Cape
- Postgraduate diploma in sport for development (NQF 8), University of the Western Cape
- Certificate in massage for sport and fitness, ETA College
- BA in sport, recreation, and exercise science, University of the Western Cape
- Dean Merit List Award for Top Achiever in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences
- Golden Key Honour Society New Member Recognition Award
- Africa’s Top 100 Brightest Young Minds
Watching my mom, a single mother, raising four children on her own has been the source of inspiration for everything that I have achieved in my life. She is the kind of independent and empowered woman that I hope to become one day. Everything I have achieved is through the support and opportunities that she created for me.
“This too shall pass” — even when things are at their worst, this too shall pass and even when you are happy and you feel that you are where you’re meant to be, this too shall pass.
A unified, all-inclusive South Africa, where young people advocate for, and promote, the Olympic values and sport for development practices, in all spheres of their lives.