Some coaches have had the chance to cross the Atlantic Ocean to come support our national teams. While we’re waiting for the canoe-kayak sprint competitions to start, we’re living the Olympic Games from an outside view – watching images and results from our favourite sports on the web and on television.
First of all, we don’t see much from here – the English media are constantly around their athletes (“Go WIGGO!” in cycling yesterday). We have very few occasions to go see Olympic competitions because of the high ticket prices!
Happily, the presentations going on at the Global Coaches House, by numerous sport specialists, keep us centered on the reason why we are here. Coaches, physiologists, and psychologists from many countries around the world, enlighten us on our profession.
Finally, a lot of points are converging and it is reassuring to see that even with technology, innovations, or information, the coach is still at the centre of the athletes’ performance!
ROWING RACES: PROFESSIONALISM OR THE IMPORTANCE OF DETAILS?
Our hotel, being close to the rowing and sprint canoe-kayak Olympic basin called Eton Dorney, gives us the chance to live side by side with the Canadian athletes and coaches.
The athletes and their staff are lodged in a hotel near the basin, so they can concentrate on the most important competition of their career.
Yesterday night, there was a lack of euphoria in the Canadian clan: Peter Cookson, Rowing Canada's high performance director, was explaining the win by the men’s eight after their difficult qualification. The Canadian athletes succeeded in motivating themselves after a catastrophic entry, and obtained a silver medal in a highly stressful context -- the first 4 boats were within a 3 second difference of each other after 6 minutes of racing. The fourth eight (the Americans) were only 99.31% away from winning the gold medal in this context!
It's certain that a number of athletes went to bed with regrets that night: “where did I miss a stroke?”
In reality, this result is the product of a year’s investment, or even a few years of investment.
This morning, I saw the women’s eight after their warm-up – I was dumbfounded by their extreme concentration! Their determination was visible on their faces… the race was already started!
I had the occasion to visit Al Morrow this spring, head coach of the women’s rowing team, and I can tell you that no detail is left out when it comes to performance -- physical preparation, massage therapy, physiotherapy, nutrition, hydration…
This professionalism is common resulting in two amazing team performances (two medals for the “eights”).
Congratulations for these results!
