I have not caught Olympic Fever yet, but when the Athletics competitions start, I anticipate my excitement and engagement jumping! That said, in week one, I caught some of the rugby sevens and swimming, as well as saw short clips of gymnastics and judo. Wow, are there ever a lot of spectators at events. The Stade de France is the venue for Rugby sevens, and the crowds have been 69,000! That is wild! And the swimming venue looks packed, too. It is quite a contrast to Tokyo in 2021.
image: Wix - Unsplash
The Olympics is a big spectacle and an amazing competition for the best athletes in the world. Further, the qualification is extremely hard, and many amazing, dedicated athletes did not qualify — missing by small margins. Therefore, this makes a couple of performances I caught the results from in the opening days even more incredible. The winner of the women’s mountain biking race won by nearly three minutes (~3.5% faster than 2nd). And in the men’s swimming, the 400m individual medley winner won by 5.67s (2.33% faster than 2nd). Both these performances were by French athletes. Home court advantage? How does someone perform that much better than the rest of the best?
Qualifying for an Olympic/Paralympic or world championship team is an incredible accomplishment. During the games, there will be many post-race interviews and athlete profiles televised, which will highlight the tremendous work athletes have done to be Olympians. These short interviews and athlete profiles that broadcasts have produced offer a glimpse of what it takes to be an elite athlete. Typically, the interview questions are identical, and the answers are all similar, thus leading to the impression that everyone is doing the same thing and a lot of it. However, I am interested in the deeper story and what we could learn from what I believe is a more diverse approach to athlete development — and maybe how athletes make their Nation’s Olympic team or how, at the highest level of athletic competition, someone can be 2.3% to 3.5% faster than the next best.
Image: Wix Media
Thank you, The Happiness Lab Podcast! This podcast is producing some long-form interviews, and in the first episode of their Olympic series, Dr. Laurie Santos interviews British 1500m runner Georgia Bell. In this podcast, Georgia retraces her unique pathway to being an Olympic athlete: from early success as a fourteen-year-old to an NCAA track scholarship, stagnation, injuries, dropping out and coming back, and finding her enjoyment in running and making the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic team.
Georgia’s story is inspirational. It highlights that athletic development is not linear and individualizing athletes’ training to their context nurtures joy and creates opportunities for elite development. And crucially, it indicates that our sports system is failing athletes. Like when Georgia was a scholarship athlete and dropped out after University. It has me wondering, did athletes who could have challenged the French mountain biker or the French swimmer dropout somewhere earlier in their sports career?
How many different pathways are there to being elite?
What don’t we know about athlete development? When is less better?
How do we keep the joy for people in sport participation?
Although our eyes are on the Olympic athletes with Paris 2024, and my speculation is that the Olympic fields may be diminished due to dropout, what about the submerged part of the iceberg? Who are we missing from sport and recreation at the many levels below the Olympics? How are we doing in providing diverse athletic pathways that sustain physical activity, community participation and sport for life?
(Please comment below. You are also welcome to contact me about coach education and program design.)
The Happiness Lab Podcast
The Happiness of the Long Distance Runner (Georgia Bell, 1500m British Olympian)
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The First Lap Coaching:
Are you interested in discussing how we can enhance athletes’ joy, engagement and sustained participation in your organization? I offer Coach Education and Program Design consultations and presentations to sports clubs and associations. I would be excited to learn about your club’s challenges and successes.
All the best,
Kevin
Kevin Shields
Master of Coaching, University of Alberta
BEd, Nipissing University
BSc (Kinesiology), University of Waterloo
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