MJ: London even tougher

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London 2012: Team GB lack expertise to thrive on the world stage

Olympic years always bring out the best in the true champions and expose those who are not quite ready for prime time.

By Michael Johnson, four-time olympic gold medallist

Last Updated: 8:42AM BST 01 Oct 2008

Tyson Gay, Allison Felix, Sanya Richards, Asafa Powell and Blanca Vlasic all established themselves as the best in the world after Athens 2004, dominated their events and gave themselves the opportunity to become individual Olympic champions.

They all failed in Beijing, and that was not good for the sport. Athletics needs stars who are world figures because of their dominance.

Usain Bolt, of course, is such a figure now. He came to Beijing to run in three events and left with three gold medals and three world records. With his performances in the 100 metres, 200m, and 4 x 100m relay he established himself as the undisputed fastest man in the world and a sportsman who has transcended track and field to become a celebrity known all over the planet.

It was a very different Olympics for athletics, with the Americans losing some of their traditional dominance in the sprints.

They still managed to finish on par with their normal medal haul, thanks to medals in non-traditional events like the women’s hammer.

The tiny nation of Jamaica gained worldwide attention through Bolt, Melanie Walker in the 400m hurdles, and a clean sweep in the women’s 100m.

Jamaica have come under scrutiny because of their unprecedented medal haul and the fact that they do not have an independent drug-testing agency. That is a problem that needs repairing quickly, especially given all the recent doping scandals in this sport.

But to be fair, it should also be noted that the Jamaicans have not come from nowhere. They have always been strong and have always been in position to win gold medals in the sprints, hurdles and relays based on a long tradition of athletics being the national sport.

[b]The other big difference in Beijing was that, for the first time, athletics took a back seat to swimming and gymnastics.

Take Bolt out of the equation and athletics would not have a chance of regaining the status it once had. [/b]

The British athletics squad had performed well below expectations in 2004, but then had promising performances at the European, Commonwealth, and 2007 World Championships. However, they again failed to bring home the medals on the biggest stage – Christine Ohuruogu was the lone gold medallist.

Looking ahead to London 2012, the Americans will certainly want to re-establish their dominance of the sprints but will have a tough time of it with the Jamaicans now inspiring a whole new generation of their athletes to train harder and believe they can win Olympic gold.

[b]The British team will have to take a very hard and serious look at restructuring their programme, taking those athletes who are identified as potential medallists and putting them in situations that are proven to help athletes reach and perform to their potential.

I do not believe that expertise exists in the UK at this point and there is not enough time to develop it. British athletes must train harder and smarter in order to stay healthy, compete more on the international circuit to gain top level experience and develop a tougher attitude to compete with the American, Caribbean and African athletes who generally approach competition with a tougher attitude and approach. [/b]

The Jamaicans will not be the only team the Americans and the British will have to battle with. Other small nations such as Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and Nigeria have always been positioned to get athletes into finals and will be inspired by what they saw from the Jamaicans this year.

Looking ahead to 2012, it could prove even more difficult to win athletics medals for Americans and Britons than in Beijing or Athens.

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Maybe in the US but certainly not in the UK and I very much doubt around the world. This is a UK article so I don’t know why he would say this. Gymnastics coverage was poor and even with medals and air-time there wasn’t much buzz around swimming.

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Its was all about the cycling in the UK. They did very well indeed.

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I’m not a great believer in these identification schemes (give them money and let them run off here and there). If you create the right circumstances at home (coaching and a large pool of athletes)- and this can be done now that facilities are vastly improved- the athletes (and who knows which ones!) will come through.
Hopefully, TC will weigh in on this.

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Based on what I’ve seen of the UK System they need to be careful of putting all their eggs in 1 basket. They now have some excellent facilities up and down the country including 2 in London where the majority of the talent is based. Problem is that most of the professional coaches only coach a few athletes (those that have been identified as talented - e.g. 2-4). In fact I believe some are ONLY allowed to coach those top class athletes plus there is no incentive for them to work with developing athletes as they are only paid for medals. I reckon in London a single full time coach could comfortably work with 50 athletes a week without compromising the higher level athletes. This is what Franno does in Jamaica and look how many great athletes he now has in his squad and I’m sure there will be more breaking through in the future.

Of course when you have someone as good as Ben things get difficult but currently Britain only has 1 Olympic gold medallist. Charlie, how do you think the structure should change once you get a top class athlete in terms of how many other athletes you can coach?

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Karolyi talks in his book about having hundreds of kids in his program on a regular basis.

And I think I’ve read in a few places about a lot of top swimming coaches coaching kids of all ages while coaching Olympic athletes.

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You have the right idea but you need proven coaches at the top, and, to remove the current restrictions on numbers, they need assistant coaches and, below that, unpaid apprentice coaches to obtain a working ratio of 6 to 1.
So- head coach + 3 assts + 3 apprentices =
7 x 6 = a working group of 42. A group that size will guarantee results if the program is good.
All the coaches would need to share responsibility for routine massage therapy to supplement any injury therapy available and to reduce the need for outside help to a maneagable level.
The injury therapists would need to be accountable to the head coach and cannot continue to operate as an independant and separate entity, as they do now.
You have the possibility of concentrating attention by running 2 streams in the week, splitting speed sessions into Mon, Wed, Fri for Group1 and Tues, Thurs, Sat for Group 2 for S-to-L programs- OR, you could run a S-to-L program with speed M,W,F, and a L-to-S program with speed Tues, Sat.
The options are many.

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Charlie,

How similar is this set up to what you did with your group you had?

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I originally had 32 kids and later had 2 helping- not the ideal ratio but it’s possible with the long breaks between speed runs to send them off separately or in twos sometimes. Later on I had a bit smaller group.

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That plan sounds good. I was considering a little larger group but kind of split into 2 based on training age and ability. One half would recieve medical attention daily and train for speed Mon, Wed, Thurs. The second group would be bigger but have less therapy because they are training less and are further from their potential (tues, thurs, sat) they won’t need more therapy. Having slightly less numbers in the “elite” group would make tempo/therapy days a little easier to manage.

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Great idea. Would make things alot easier for you…It could also serve as an incentive for the ‘non elite’ to wanna step up and join the elite group too.

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What would each day be for emphasis? curious as to your Wed Thur days.

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Sorry meant Mon Wed Fri!

Speed > Speed End > Speed End

You get the idea 3 high days a week tempo on the other days. Since most therapy happens on day off and tempo days these would be the highest workload days. Tues, Thurs, Sat would be relatively light workload for the coaches.

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There may be some excellent facilities but few are allowed to use the facilities unless they are on the World Class programme. Having great facilities is one thing but ensuring that they are used fully/appropriately is another. In my opinion these places are like show houses, there is no atmosphere and everything looks plastic as if it is ready to be moved at any time e.g., funding is pulled.

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I know, I see it all the time. Around where I live there are “like new” tracks that are locked up with an additional barb wire fence that surrounds it.

It’s just sad, tracks and weight room facilitates should be avaliable for everybody to use.