Simon Barnes

The medal machine

Individual talent is indispensable. But it needed a system – and a strategy – behind it

Never forget Atlanta. Every time a British athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, remember the Atlanta Games of 1996. I was there, and I saw some great sport — and absolutely none of it was British. Great Britain finished 36th in the medal table, behind Kazakhstan, Algeria, Belgium and Ireland.

There was a single British gold medal, and I missed it. It was won by Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, now both sirs: two enormous boys on the burning deck. For the rest, eight silvers and six bronzes seemed to confirm the nature of our sporting culture: the nation that aimed low and missed.


Simon Barnes on Team GB’s Olympic success:


Why were we so bad at sport? If you worked as a sportswriter back then, you needed a good answer. We just don’t have a winning mentality in this country, people complained. My line was that we just didn’t have a winning system: too much of British sport was still a gentlemanly muddle.

Adam Peaty celebrates winning gold and setting a new world record in the Men's 100m Breaststroke (Photo: Getty)

Rio 2016: Adam Peaty celebrates winning gold and setting a new world record in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke (Photo: Getty)

A few years after Atlanta, I attended a training camp for British swimmers in Cyprus. An Australian coach called Bill Sweetenham was then in charge. He had a vast belly, a fat man’s swagger, a voice that could clear a crowded bar and a deep love for the pursuit of victory.

And the Brits in their tracksuits had never heard anything like it. Who wants to be ordinary? Not me. Well if you don’t want to be ordinary, this is what you have to do. And don’t think it’s going to be easy…

To buy a lottery ticket is a long-odds shot at becoming extraordinary: transforming your life for the price of a little loose change.

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