Preston's taekwondo sensation Adelaide Barnes wants to follow in Michael Phelps's and Eileen Gu's footsteps by dominating her sport after being hand-picked as a SportsAid, Next Generation athlete, fuelled by Aldi.

SportsAid supports over 1,000 young athletes each year by providing a financial award to help with training and competition costs while also delivering personal development opportunities to many athletes through workshop sessions.

Aldi are now working in partnership with SportsAid to support 20 young athletes on their journey to becoming future Olympians and Paralympians – including Moore – and helping them to eat like a champion.

The 17-year-old was born in Wilmington, North Carolina but lives in Preston with her family and has already secured two second-place finishes at the British Taekwondo National Championships and a spot on the GB Taekwondo Development Squad. 

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And now that she can focus fully on her sport, Barnes has set her sights on Olympic gold. 

"A gold medal at the Olympics, that is what I want. I want the gold," said Barnes, speaking after filming a new TV advertising campaign for Aldi, who work with Team GB and ParalympicsGB on the Get Set to Eat Fresh programme, helping school children eat healthier and live an active lifestyle.

"My earliest Olympic memory was in 2008 when Michael Phelps won eight gold medals.  

"That was just like, 'Oh my gosh. He won. I want to win something that big' - it was crazy.'

"But another moment that inspired my gold medal dream was more recent, at the Winter Olympics with Eileen Gu. 

"She won two golds and a silver, and I saw her compete and thought that it was amazing for her to do that. 

"I felt like I wanted a moment like that where I was so incredibly proud of myself and where I prove how far I have come. 

"It would be nice to dominate and be a winner, but I feel like an athlete is not just a person who wins. An athlete is a person that is a role model who can really prove who they are as a person when competing in the sport. 

"That is what I want to be." 

Each year, athletes are nominated to SportsAid by the national governing bodies of more than 60 sports based on set criteria.

The Aldi-supported athletes will be receiving a £2,000 award through SportsAid. Aldi will also support their 20 athletes with a £25 monthly voucher, to fuel them through training, competitions and to future Olympic and Paralympic Games.

And Barnes has an exciting year ahead of her, with training camps in Croatia and South Korea just around the corner. 

She added: "At the minute, in July, we're going to spend a month in South Korea, and then in September, we are going to spend a few weeks in Croatia for a training camp, and I'm really, really excited. 

"One of the best things in my sports is all the travelling, meeting people and seeing new things, so it is just amazing. 

"It is a training camp in Korea, we were going to do an open, but we wanted to focus on really training. 

"I'm so excited."

Aldi is the Official Supermarket Partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB and have partnered with Team GB since 2015, ParalympicsGB since 2022 and will be supporting them through to Paris 2024