NTO Spotlight - 25 years of Touch in Chile…

Touch President, Ximena Raimann shares her experience of Touch with us

“We started socially and with few rules, around the year 2000. In 2016, the National Touch Rugby Federation (Chile Touch) was created, and in 2017, the Ministry of Sport recognized it as a sport in Chile.”

Ximena was invited to play in a mixed team back in 2002, before her children eventually joined the team alongside her. Ximena marks her greatest achievement as placing 7th for the Chilean Mixed Open team in the Touch World Cup in Malaysia in 2019. She goes on to say: 

“My greatest pride is having obtained seventh place in the 2019 World Cup and having taken four teams to the last World Cup. This is considering that we don’t even reach 200 people who practice the sport in Chile and we do not have experienced coaches.”

Whilst Chile have competed in Opens and Senior categories in past events, their new focus is to develop the sport in the younger generation. Ximena describes that the ultimate goal is to enter Chile into international youth competitions:

“We believe the most effective way to introduce the sport to young people in Chile is through primary schools. Particularly for schools that practice rugby, as this helps to introduce younger children to basic handling skills. We would also like to develop free training camps across Santiago and hopefully in other cities for children to sign up and learn about the sport. It will also be key to provide sports teachers with the necessary knowledge and tools for them to teach touch football in schools.”

Chile is also introducing an elite league, in the hope that it will assist with their participation and results in international tournaments. Ximena also sees this as a key part of raising awareness of the sport of touch across the country.

Chile intends to send teams to the European Championships next year as part of its programme for the next World Cup cycle. Entries for the European championships have recently opened and details sent to NTOs directly. 

We’d like to thank Ximena for her time in sharing her story and that of Chile Touch. If you want to share your story about the development of the sport in your country, please get in touch.