What I Learned and Re-Learned Coaching at the London Olympics

In July, I had the opportunity to coach a boat at the Olympic Games.  I have assisted with the team and coached at the World Championships for the past four years, so I knew the athletes and the routine at international competitions.  However, my last trip to the Olympics was in Atlanta in 1996 when I was an athlete not a coach.  Occasionally I got nervous leading up to this event, but my general philosophy has always been: racing is racing, and we train for it every day.  That said, from my experience as an athlete, I knew that the Olympics are a bit different … just enough that it can really throw off an athlete’s performance.  My goal as a coach this summer was to make the environment and experiences as close to “normal” as possible to allow the athletes to perform at their best with focus and without added distraction.  I was working with one of the most successful international rowing coaches, and with his guidance, we were able to have a successful Olympics.

First, I acknowledge that the Olympic Games are arguably the premier sporting event globally.  The stakes are high because the eyes of the world are watching.  One of the biggest pressures on an athlete is the pressure that comes from other people’s expectations.  In the lead-up to the Olympics, there is more speculation and forecasting of projected results than any other year.  Athletes always have family following them.  However, in an Olympic year hometowns, states and the entire country pick heros and follow them through the competition.  This is an incredible amount of pressure for an athlete to bear.  The head coach addressed this in various ways through the months leading up to London and again throughout the competition.  He kept the athletes grounded and tried to relieve some of the pressure and expectations that others were heaping on.

The global interest also increases stress levels on athletes because there is more media coverage leading up to and during the Games.  (Let me point out that any media coverage for rowers is more than normal, but in an Olympic year it increases exponentially with interest from magazines like Time and Outside and national news shows like The Today Show). In team sports, this can cause divisiveness because the media wants to have one or two spokespeople.  In a boat with nine people the others are left without a voice and without the publicity.  It is easy for teammates to get caught up in issues that do not help them go fast.  The policy on our team is that access to media was strictly limited until after the qualifier races.  Then it was monitored closely until after the final races.  Although this caused some irritation to the reporters who wanted access to the rowers, it did keep the athletes focused on the task at hand and not on who was saying what.

The stakes are also high because the Games occur once every four years, and many competitors only have one shot at their dream of an Olympic medal.  The pressure that athletes put on themselves increases through the selection process and through the competition.  Additionally, the coaches and staff feel an immense amount of pressure that everything be ideal for the athlete’s performance.  Individuals respond differently to that pressure.  The athletes who make the team are usually the ones who respond well performance-wise under pressure.  However, personalities can change over the months of added stress.  Some athletes get selfish, cocky, short-tempered, defensive, paranoid, or overwhelmed.  It is the coach’s responsibility to monitor the team dynamics.  Sometimes it is better to let each boat work things out, but sometimes the coach needs to pull aside an individual and address the issue.

There are many distractions.  Sponsors have places and host events, to celebrate the Olympians.  Processing, where the athletes get all their clothing, Opening and Closing Ceremony uniforms, etc., takes a full day out of a training plan.  However it is not “resting”.  It is exhausting and comes just days before the start of competition.  Opening Ceremonies is an amazing event.  But for the athletes, it is hours of sitting in an arena next door before walking in to the crowded stadium.  Again, exhausting.  We kept our environment as close to what we would experience at World Championships as possible.  We stayed at a satellite village with other rowers, so we did not have all the distraction of the main Olympic Village.  Our athletes did not walk in Opening Ceremonies because racing for some started the next day.  So much of their “Olympic Experience” was postponed until after the first week of racing.  This kept the athletes focused and as rested as possible.

Additionally, security at the Olympic Games is conspicuous.  The athletes stay in secured facilities with full security screenings for access.  Family and friends are not allowed to enter freely.  The busses are checked thoroughly before accessing any venues.  It is very isolating, but does ensure that the athletes are free of distractions.

Finally, there is the added stress that comes from potential financial gains.  In rowing, these are not significant, but successful Olympic performances can make the difference between being comfortable or barely scraping by financially.  There is also pressure on the National Governing Body to get medals because future funding from the U.S. Olympic Committee and other sources is based on performance.

All that said, the competition itself was very much like a World Championship.  A race course is a race course.  They are all similar: 2000m long with buoyed lanes like a huge swimming pool.  Life was not glamorous.  I ate in the dining hall, I slept on a mattress on the floor so that we could get one more coach in the dorms in the Satellite Village, and I flew out the day after my boat finished racing to make room for the kayakers coming in for the next week.  I never made it in to the main Olympic Village or got to see any other events.  However, it was a glorious experience.  I got to bike along the course and yell for the races along with the other coaches.  I got to see the best rowers in the world racing head-to-head.  And I got to experience the breathtaking performance of our women’s quadruple sculls to win the Olympic bronze medal, the inspiring performance by the women’s pair to come a heartbreakingly close 4^th … in their first international competition in the pair, and the impressive performance by our women’s eight to win the Olympic gold medal.