[HIGH PERFORMANCE]


2011 PAN AMERICAN GAMES AND WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AFTERTHOUGHTS & OBSERVATIONS


BY PETER T. ROSELLI HIGH PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR


Having spent almost a month together


with the US Team — first in Mexico at the Pan American Games, and then in France at the Worlds — I thought the following comments on various topics


regarding


these two competitions from the high per- formance perspective would be of interest.


US TEAM PERFORMANCE OVERALL Given the close proximity of the Pan


American Games and the World Champi- onships, and the fact that most team mem- bers lifted at both competitions, in effect the two merged to become one competi- tive effort in two locations. This resulted in a significant competitive disadvantage not only for our team, but for all the Pan American Federation teams entered at the World Championships. Results were down generally for Pan


American teams, exacerbated by the fact that many athletes and lifters returned from Mexico having contracted influenza, only to have to make the second journey to France almost immediately upon return to their home countries. Three of our men as well as two of our coaches contracted the flu, whose effects lingered with them for most of our stay in France. On balance, our results were as anticipat-


ed. The three bronze medals won in Mex- ico were challenging to achieve and well earned, as were the two women’s Olympic slots in France. All of our team members participated in training and competition dil- igently. However, in the future, deployment of athletes strategically between two com- petitions so closely scheduled by reserving our point scorers for the World Champion- ships would be an optimal course of action to maximize our team placement potential for earning Olympic slots.


COMPETITION ON SITE LOGISTICS Both competition locations presented


logistical challenges in terms of effective management of the training and competi- tion elements, requiring a team effort on the part of the staff and athletes.


In Mexico, the training and competition


halls, as well as the weigh-in facility, were located forty minutes to an hour by bus from the athlete’s village. With lifters train- ing and competing at different times each day, the only way this could have been suc- cessfully accomplished was with the atten- tion to detail and time management on the part of the athletes, who often had to trav- el to train at the remote location on their own based on the preplanned schedule. Fortunately, the US Olympic Committee staff on site was extremely well organized and helped in every way to make the daily schedule achievable and the buses ran on time, and often. In France, the competition was located


at Euro-Disney, a remote location forty minutes outside of Paris, and an equal distance from the airport. Administration of the competition by the organizers was marginal, causing daily problems with ar- rival shuttle transport from the airport as well as long delays in getting through the accreditation process. This coupled with the fact that training and accreditation was located in one hotel, athlete/coach accommodations were


located in two


others, while the competition venue was located in a fourth facility, proved to be challenging and inconvenient. Since all four locations were enough of a walk from each other to make movement from one to the other time consuming. The redeeming quality of both locations,


however, was that the sport specific facili- ties were first class in terms of equipment and staging, with both competition and training halls outfitted with new, first qual- ity barbell sets and platforms in more than sufficient numbers. Technical management of both competitions was very profession- ally done. Beyond the logistical challenges at both locations, the weightlifting itself – training and competition – was well done.


PRE-COMPETITION TRAINING Unlike the impression many of us may have had here, the pre-competition train-


6 >> WEIGHTLIFTING.TEAMUSA.ORG


ENTRY TOTAL MANAGEMENT A topic of interest here this past


year has been the incorporation of the announced entry total process in our do- mestic competitions. At the international level of competition, the use of the entry total is a requirement due to unavailability of minimum quali- fication total data worldwide per


category commonly


maintained. Together with the 20kg and 15kg mini- mum starting attempts total requirement be- low the declared entry total, the entry total process works effectively. Managing the entry totals submitted at


DIET AND NUTRITION In both conversation and observation, I


noted a very clear consciousness regard- ing good diet and nutrition on the part of the athletes from all countries both in Mex- ico and France, with an emphasis on raw and steamed vegetables, fruits, protein foods, rice, etc., with less eating of foods of high fat content, particularly among the lower body weight category lifters. USA Weightlifting’s National Resident


Coach, Coach Smalcerz, offered some additional comments on eating and nutri- tion for weightlifters consistent with what I observed. He pointed out by personal ex- perience that five smaller meals a day are better than three. The athlete does not ex- perience the same hunger sensation that occurs with a habit of three larger meals per day, while at the same time getting the requisite amount of calories and nutrients. In addition, he pointed out the quality hi- erarchy of protein foods is red meat, then fish, then chicken, with yogurt and cottage cheese also bring very good foods for the weightlifter to consume.


ing of athletes across the board from vari- ous National Federations was standard tapered, pre-competition training for the most part as I observed it during my time in the training hall in Mexico and France. The heavy lifting of years past close to the day of competition seems to have been adjusted to light to medium levels of in- tensity, with concentration on tuning of technique, etc.


the final verification meeting is an important


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