Christian,
In the interview you mentioned supervising your sprinter at the track @ 8:00 AM. Charlie Francis mentions the need for athletes to be up for 4 hours before a speed session in order for all motor units to be turned on and for it to therefore be safe and productive to sprint. Do you disagree or is he up for a long time before going to the track?
The sprinter in question trains at 8:00 by obligation. He works a full-time job which starts every morning at 10:30 and ends at 6:00 … we tried to have him trained at that time and he was simply dead. So we had to use the only other available time slot.
BTW, this gives you an idea of how supportive Sport Canada is of its athletes. Here’s a guy who went to TWO olympics and has a real chance of going to a third one, yet he has to work 40 hours per week and train first thing in the morning. Can’t even afford to buy any supplements!
He does wake up at 5:15 - 5:30 though
I agree totally with you Christian. Sport Canada needs to get it’s %$#@ together soon, or our athletes will continue to be “middle of the pack”. I see so many athletes, with a huge upside, being held back by the “carding” system this country has right now. Alot of them have to work, go to school, and train to be a high performance athlete. Not a great formula when your expecting world class results. Even with all of the “talk” Sport Canada gave us after the last winte games, things still haven’t changed much. One funny aside to this…I have met alot of foreign athlete training in Calgary (at the Oval) and all they do is train and eat and sleep…all while travelling to the most advacned training centers in the world for their specific sport. Don’t here about too many Canadian athletes getting the same treatment do ya?
That is ridiculous!
Pete, what do you mean by ridiculous? Just wondering.
The idea of a two time olympian sprinter having to train at 8:00 AM because he has to work full time.
Becoming an elite athlete in Canada is much like climbing a mountain… when you are at the bottom of the mountain, about to start your ascent you ask everywhere around if somebody could give you some rope to help you along the way. Everywhere you get the same asnwer: “Hmm… we don’t have enough rope right now, and what we have we need for other purposes”.
So you decide to climb anyway, and by sheer passion and drive you are able to reach the top … THEN, waiting for you is a pack of guys waiting to give you the much needed rope!
Unfortunately, every year you have to start over at the bottom of the mountain.