WIN £1,000 in sporting equipment and a place on the Lidl Sport for Good Schools Programme 2025-26.

With 44% of young people in Northern Ireland having experienced a mental health problem*, participation in sport has never been as important as it provides young people with a boost to social skills, self-esteem and body confidence as well as a life-long support network of friends and mentors.

That's why Lidl have teamed up with Youth Sport Trust, the UK&I’s leading charity improving young people’s education and development through sport, to offer 25 secondary schools across NI the opportunity to participate in the Lidl Community Works Sport for Good schools programme.

With a nationwide team of specially trained elite athletes at the ready, we are committed to teaching students about the long-term physical and mental health benefits of sports participation. These athlete mentors will run workshops and take sessions with the students that will help increase their confidence and resilience while also providing them with tools to help manage their own mental health into adulthood.

On top of all that, each chosen school will also receive £1,000 in brand new sporting equipment of their choice.

Nominations for the 2025-26 programme will open soon. Check back here again for more details!

T&Cs available here

Rhys McClenaghan - Olympic Champion and Two-Time World Champion Pommel Horse (Gymnastics)

Gymnast Rhys McClenaghan is an Olympic and two-time world Champion in the Pommel Horse. The 25-year-old has rapidly risen to prominence as the World’s best pommel horse practitioner. He is also a three-time European gold medallist and a Commonwealth Games winner, bringing his medal tally to nine at major championships.

He made history at the Tokyo 2020 Games when he became the first Irish gymnast to make an Olympic final but had to deal with the crushing disappointment of falling off the pommel horse during his routine. In 2024, at the Paris Olympic Games he made history by producing the best performance of his life and becoming Olympic Champion. In 2023, Rhys was awarded the prestigious RTÉ Sportsperson of the Year, a testament to his exceptional talent and achievement.

Rhys is a full-time athlete training at Origin Gymnastics Centre in his hometown of Newtownards, where Luke Carson coaches him. In recent years, he has spoken openly about the mental challenges of elite sport and advocates for minding the mind as much as the body.