Seidler turns to talent identification

Two-time Olympian Phillip Seidler has ventured into sport event management in a bid to help the country identify talent.

Seidler wants to help discover and mould potential athletes who can represent the nation at major global competitions.

In a recent interview with Desert FM, Seidler said he established the Team Flippy sport event management company to regularly organise competitions.

The aim is for Namibia to take a larger team to the next Olympic Games and beyond to increase Namibia’s chances of reaching the podium.

“I believe Namibia has so much hidden talent that we are not seeing because we have too few sporting events,” Seidler said.

“That is why we held the open water competition in December last year which we dubbed ‘Open Water Splash’ where we sponsored ten underprivileged kids from the DRC neighborhood, including the Women’s Project Foundation.”

Seidler is of the opinion that sport has proven to unify Namibia which in turn boosts national pride. He recently partnered with the Pupkewitz Foundation to create opportunities to nurture talent.

Together, they will stage a beach series from February to May this year, featuring swimming and running.

“The beach series will consist of four events with one event per month. It is all about bringing the communities from different backgrounds together,” the Swakopmunder said.

“The beach series has become very popular; we had a lot of entries last year. Now that we have two huge sponsors on board, it is going to be better and bigger because for each event there will be prizes and other items to be won,” he continued.

“We want to bring the entire Namibian nation together through sport, we want to find and identify the young Namibian talent that can be moulded and mentored through the Pupkewitz Foundation,” Seidler said.

Team Flippy intends to organise domestic and international events where scouts will have the opportunity to run the rule over potential gems.

“In 2026, we are planning to have swimming, running, triathlon, cycling, beach volleyball, beach football and touch rugby. We are certainly going to expand through hosting different sport codes to find and identify talent,” Seidler emphasised.

“We are trying our best to have international events through sport and it is through such initiatives that the corporate sector may partner with us and others in the development of sport.”