HIGH PERFORMANCE
THE OLYMPIC FAMILY
By Scott Schnitzspahn
HOW THE USOC, USA TRIATHLON STAFF, ATHLETES AND PERSONAL COACHES WIN TOGETHER
The music is blaring over the loudspeaker just above our heads as we wait nervously on the walkway leading to the pontoon where in 10 minutes, 55 of the fittest athletes on the planet will dive into the water to start the most important triathlon of their lives – the Olympic Games.
We, the USA Triathlon Sport Performance staff , give the athletes reassuring smiles and thumbs up, even though we are equally as nervous for them. One of the athletes asks for some Bodyglide, and I reach into the depths of my backpack and search frantically for the small plastic container, knowing it could be the difference between gold and four more years of hoping.
In the bag I feel Old Glory, the American flag that I hope to be able to hand out at the finish line to one of our athletes who has made the podium. I find the Bodyglide just as another athlete screams in a panic – broken goggles! Our team manager calmly removes the athlete’s spare goggles that she had collected the night before and hands them to the athlete with that reassuring smile in place. The bike mechanic has topped off the air pressure in all the tires, his final act after four continuous days of making sure every bolt is tightened to the proper tension and every shift will be perfect. Our chiropractor finishes the last stretches on an athlete to allow for the perfect swim stroke. Finally, the time has come. The athletes remove their warm-ups and throw them at the staff . Cheers and last-minute encouragement ring out from the staff as the athletes jog into position on the pontoon. The music is now just a loud, steady drum beat that simulates the beating of everyone’s hearts. Then silence. “On your mark!”
Four years earlier, a young triathlete visited the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs as part of an athlete development camp with a group of other talented triathletes with Olympic potential. This athlete met with the USA Triathlon staff to coordinate the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and USA Triathlon combined resources. At the training center, we scheduled blood draws, testing with the USOC physiologist, underwater videotaping and velocity testing in the Olympic pool, skill work on the bike with a contracted cycling coach and running form evaluation and drill work with a contracted running coach. As talented as this athlete was, she had so much to learn. The athlete’s personal coach took all the data and reviewed the athlete’s plan with us. Then they got to work
For 30 hours per week, the athlete trained under the guidance of her coach, had meetings with the USOC sport psychologist to sharpen her mental weapon, had physiological data reviewed by the USOC physiologist to track her progress and traveled with the USA Triathlon staff to ITU events around the world in the quest for points and money that would sustain the Olympic dream. While the athlete had success early on in the Conti nental Cups, on the biggest stage, the ITU World Championship Series, the athlete found out what getting humbled feels like. The nervousness before the events and the lonely pre-race day in her hotel room waiting for the race. The fear in the swim at the first turn buoy as hands and feet pushed the athlete down under water, the thoughts of winning vanishing into a struggle just for a breath of air. The despair as the main cycling pack grew smaller and smaller in the distance no matter how hard the pedals were smashed. The empty feeling as feet pounded the pavement on the run, no cheers coming from the crowd and the realization of 51st place setting in.
Following setbacks at major races, plans were scrapped and new campaigns dreamed up. The personal coach met with the sport performance staff and contracts were changed, training plans modified and encouragement given. If only…she had not gotten sick the week before the race… she hadn’t crashed in that last training ride or turned an ankle on the trail…the plane hadn’t been delayed.
Then it happened, suddenly, and with only hints of the possibility coming in key training sessions – a top-10 performance. Finally, aft er all the hard work, the tears, the pain, the meetings with staff and coaches, with physiologists, psychologists and nutritionists – a breakthrough. But would it be repeated?
Yes. Race after race, across ocean trip after across ocean trip, she figured it out. With her personal coach’s guidance and daily motivati on, the USA Triathlon funding and staff supporting her at events, and the USOC staff providing the expertise and services to squeeze the final half a percent out of her performance, she had become a consistent medal threat on any given race day. With her success, she had collected enough points to earn entry into the Olympic Team selection events, and she had performed on that day as well to make the U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team. But today was not any given day, it was THE day, one that will probably never come again – the Olympic Games.
Scott Schnitzspahn was the Sport Performance Director for USA Triathlon for the 2006 through 2010 seasons, was the Team Leader for the U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is a Level III certified coach and first became involved with the sport as an athlete in 1992. He continues to work with USA Triathlon as a High Performance Director for the U.S. Olympic Committee.
14 USA TRIATHLON FALL 10
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