Mica McNeill is the #1 driver in the GB women’s bobsleigh team and right now she’s preparing hard for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. We’re less than five months from the greatest sporting event on earth, a time when athletes the world over are battling for berths and striving to reach the zeniths of physical conditioning. Think of Mica’s preparations and you might envisage endless sprints, strength… Continue Reading Mica McNeill
Mercedes Nicoll
According to the US Government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, athletes and sports competitors suffer more than 2000 recorded injuries per 10000 participants. That might sound like par for the course in the sporting world, but compare that to any other job and it becomes clear that as a professional sports person, you’re engaged in one of the most dangerous careers on the planet. Head back to my side of the pond… Continue Reading Mercedes Nicoll
Road to Rio: Part 6
A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without one, you’ll never be enough with one. It’s alright, it’s only plagiarism if you fail to acknowledge your source. In this instance, for those who haven’t already cottoned on, those are the immortal words of John Candy’s character Irving Blitzer from the film Cool Runnings. And he’s saying this: an Olympic medal doesn’t form your personality.… Continue Reading Road to Rio: Part 6
Kelly Clark
Achievers. By now we know the cut of their cloth and they share this simple mantra, or at least a variation of it: find something you love doing, and never stop doing it. Don’t give up at any point. Ever. Insuperable is nothing. But I’ve noticed something else that’s laid down in the strata of successful types, an element that’s common to them all: the compulsion to share their success. I wanted… Continue Reading Kelly Clark
Jenna Prandini
Yes, I know what you’re thinking: our Road to Rio star Esther has been usurped. Don’t be silly, Part 6 is coming soon but in the mean time I thought we’d hop across the Atlantic to see how the US contingent is coming along. Great Britain, Holland, USA, Trinidad and Tobago – you see, even though I’m a Brit no one can accuse me of Olympic bias. Or can they…?… Continue Reading Jenna Prandini
An Olympic Fashion Show
I remember my first gold medal winner. My first world record holder. First prisoner of war, first best-selling author. They were guests, targets if you want, I’d hoped to tick off during the passage of some unspecified time frame. The thing is, the things you plan and prepare for – sometimes they work out and other times they don’t. Come to think of it, it was professional dancer Gordana Grandosek-Whiddon… Continue Reading An Olympic Fashion Show
Road to Rio 5
249 days as I write this. 249 days until the start of the summer Olympics in Rio de Janiero next year. And what happened to that fleeting wedge of time that slipped by since London 2012? Time flies as they say. But if you’re an athlete with eyes on Olympic qualification it flicks by at light speed. So it is, I can but imagine, for Esther who must keep shaving… Continue Reading Road to Rio 5
Trent and Gordana Whiddon Part 2
Every time I hear from Trent and Gordana the same thought goes through my mind: How do they fit it all in? British readers will know Trent from BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing during which he partnered Pixie Lott. It was an event, both televised and as a stage show, in which he and Gordana featured prominently, but life for the couple as dancers began long before Strictly, as I discovered in… Continue Reading Trent and Gordana Whiddon Part 2
Dina Asher-Smith
Dina Asher-Smith is not an easy lady to get hold of. For one thing, she has this penchant for tearing around too quickly for mortal man, or woman, to keep up with. Literally. I’m talking about the fastest British woman over 100m. Not just this year. Not this century. But ever. Plus, she’s a Nike athlete and given her current capacity as one of GB’s most promising athletes, Dina Asher-Smith… Continue Reading Dina Asher-Smith
#RoadtoRio: Part 4
I like the heat. Which is fine, because as I pen these words it’s 35 degrees outside, the hottest July day on record by all accounts. Now I realise that to those of you residing outside of the UK the mid-thirties might not sound like a particularly vertiginous climb for the mercury bar. But for us brits, since we never experience extremes in temperature (or any meteorological manifestation), anything above 30C and… Continue Reading #RoadtoRio: Part 4