Category Archives: Winter Olympics / Paralympics 2022

Why would British athletes choose winter sports?

By Caroline Heaney

The British terrain and climate are not really designed for winter sports – there are few mountains suitable for skiing and our winters simply aren’t cold enough. Yet Team GB will be taking a 50-strong squad to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. So how do athletes from a green and pleasant land come to be involved in winter sports on snow and ice?

Paths into winter sports are varied and often quite different to the more conventional routes seen in summer Olympic sports. There is also a large variation between winter sports – bobsleigh, skiing, ice skating and snowboard athletes, for example, will all have come to their sport in different ways.

The majority of athletes have a background of junior participation, often having made their entry into the sport at a young age, but in some Winter Olympic sports this is not the case. It is very common for athletes in these sports to start late, having begun their sporting career elsewhere.

Take bobsleigh and skeleton for example: these are sports that you can only start as an adult – you just can’t do them as a child. This makes career paths into these sports very different. Olympic silver medallist Shelly Rudman didn’t try skeleton until the age of 21, which is very late compared to athletes from other Olympic sports. This contradicts some models of athletic development, which suggest that investment in a sport as a junior is a requirement for success.

Many athletes transfer from other sports and many are “spotted” as potential winter sport athletes through so called “talent transfer programmes”, such as UK Sport’s ‘Girls 4 Gold’ programme which started in 2008. Double Olympic gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold was a graduate from the Girls 4 Gold programme, having transferred into the sport from athletics.

The slide from athletics

Transition from athletics seems to be a common route into sliding sports: bobsleigh, skeleton and luge. Olympic skeleton medallists Alex Coomber (bronze in 2002) Shelly Rudman (silver in 2006), Amy Williams (gold in 2010) and Lizzy Yarnold (gold in 2014 and 2018) all had a background in athletics before switching to skeleton. The speed and power elements of athletics transfer well into the push start required in both skeleton and bobsleigh.

Bobsleigh has a long-established tradition of recruiting high calibre track and field athletes into its fold (e.g., British sprinters Mark Lewis-Francis, Craig Pickering, Joel Fearon, Allyn Condon and Marcus Adam have all been part of the British squad in the past). Current GB squad member and former British 100m record holder Montell Douglas is set to become Britain’s first female summer and winter Olympian in Beijing. She stated: “I’m over the moon to be representing women. There have been many male summer and winter Olympians, so I’m more thrilled about leaving a legacy like that behind than anything else.”

The transition from athletics to bobsleigh is not exclusive to the UK. For example, sprinter Alexandra Burghardt (Germany) who competed in the Tokyo Olympics last year will also be competing in the two-woman bobsleigh in Beijing, and previously track and field Olympic/World medallists Lauryn Williams (USA),  Lolo Jones (USA) and Jana Pittman (Australia) have transitioned to bobsleigh.

Live near a ski slope

Paths into winter sports are often dictated by opportunity. Facilities for winter sports participation are few and far between and so location plays an important part. If you live near an ice rink you are more likely to become involved in speed skating or figure skating.

Kate Summerhayes, who will be representing Team GB in freestyle skiing in her third Winter Olympics in Beijing, learned to ski when she was six at the Sheffield Ski Village, which was only ten minutes away from her home. There are certainly geographic patterns in team membership – for example the GB curling and Nordic skiing teams have traditionally been dominated by Scottish athletes. Is this connected to there being better facilities and infrastructure for these sports in Scotland? A lack of winter sport facilities in the UK could certainly be hindering our prospects and the types of facilities available may limit the range of our participation.

Interestingly, Team GB normally only enter athletes into the short track speed skating event and not the long track events. This could be a consequence of limited long track speed skating facilities.

Money and role models

Finance is also strongly related to opportunity – participation in winter sports often requires overseas travel and expensive equipment. At the upper ends lottery funding and sponsorship is available, but the financial aspects may prevent potential athletes starting a winter sport. Learning to ski as a child, for example, is a privilege largely reserved for children whose parents have the income to afford skiing holidays.

Finally, one of the most important factors influencing why an athlete might move into a winter sport is role models. Medals won in the past four Winter Olympics in skeleton have certainly boosted the profile of the sport and may encourage more athletes to consider taking it up.

Any British athletes gaining medal honours in Beijing will certainly be ambassadors for winter sports and have the potential to inspire a generation to take to the slopes, ice rink or track.

 

This article was first published on OpenLearn.

For more Winter Olympics and Paralympics related articles visit our hub on OpenLearn.

A head for heights: How athletes keep calm at altitude

By Candice Lingam-Willgoss

The nature of competitive sport involves athletes putting themselves in high-pressure situations in which they are being constantly appraised, and Beijing is no different.

Subsequently, it is unsurprising that the areas of stress and anxiety are two of the most popular when looking at sport from an academic perspective. While all athletes experience anxiety to some level when they perform, either at a cognitive (mental worry) or somatic (physiological symptoms) level, it is the interpretation of those emotions that can dictate the influence they will have on their performance.

The physiological symptoms associated with anxiety can range from elevated heart rate or sweaty palms, to the classic butterflies in the stomach. The key for an elite athlete is to get those butterflies to fly in formation. The cause of this anxiety is that athletes are having to perform in “appraisal”-driven environments. Will they be good enough? Will they let the team down? Will they remember the set moves? The list of criteria is extensive.

And when we look at winter sports another variable is thrown into the mix – risk.

The Luge has been described as the fastest sport on ice, skiing sees racers get up to speeds close to 100kph, and the ski jump and snowcross carry their own unique elements of risk. Which raises the question: are the performers in these sports less concerned with the appraisal issue and more concerned about staying alive?

Without doubt the psychology related to overcoming fear is an interesting area to consider, and perhaps no one is a better example of this than four times British Olympian Chemmy Alcott (pictured above). Alcott retired after the Sochi 2014 games but in her career suffered 42 broken bones– including her neck – and without doubt knows the risk involved in her chosen sport. The surgeon responsible for her being able to compete in the Sochi games quite bluntly told her  prior to the surgery that saved her career: “There are two operations which may be necessary. Either you’ll never ski again or there’s a fraction of a chance you’ll make the Olympics.” The miracle is that Alcott made the Sochi Olympics, and finished in the top 20 in the women’s downhill skiing .

It’s true Alcott did experience anxiety or in her case something she terms fear. “I respect fear, fear is me caring about my result,” she has said . The terminology Alcott chose to describe her feelings regarding skiing imply she was fully aware of the risks involved but she chose to channel this to her advantage.

This concept of interpretation is further supported by half-pipe snowboarder Elena Hight who said dealing with fear is more mental than physical . “Fear is a very interesting thing,” she said. “It can be a very good motivator but can also be an inhibitor. It just depends on how you go about dealing with it, and I think in our sport you have to push yourself to be able to progress, you have to walk that fine line of using it as a motivator and not letting it inhibit you.” Hight like Alcott is an example of an athlete who was able to channel her emotions in a positive way becoming the first snowboarder to land a double backside alley-oop rodeo!

Many will ask how Alcott found the courage to step back out onto the competitive scene after such horrendous injuries that left her with a body so scarred that her nephews use it as a track for their toy trains. For these high-risk athletes, it has become something of an occupational hazard. As Cohen, senior sport psychologist for the US Olympic Committee has said : “That return to play after an injury requires confidence when an athlete questions whether they have what it takes to get back there.” This leads us to consider another psychological perspective, something that is a necessity for all athletes to possess – mental toughness.

Sports psychologists Peter Clough, Keith Earle and David Sewell identified four components of “mental toughness “: control, commitment, challenge and confidence. They conclude  that mentally tough athletes have “a high sense of self-belief and unshakable faith that they can control their own destiny and can remain relatively unaffected by adversity”. This is how athletes can come to have such positive interpretations of fear.

While Alcott has retired from ski racing, there is a real hope of success for a British skier at Beijing. Dave Ryding (pictured above) is coming off his first world cup win in Kitzbuhel last month. Ryding has prided himself on his hard work, discipline and determination and his ability to keep focused on the task in hand, he is able to use this focus to control the pressure he faces and control his emotions.

All eyes will be fixed on Ryding on February 16th as he takes on the slalom competition and his years of experience should allow him to cope with any anxiety felt at altitude.

 

This article was first published on OpenLearn.

For more Winter Olympics and Paralympics related articles visit our hub on OpenLearn.

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics – Welcome to the risk takers and the fearless

By Simon Rea

On 4th February 2022 the opening ceremony for the 24th Winter Olympic Games will take place in the iconic Beijing National Stadium, also known as ‘The Birds Nest’. The Games will be opened by President Xi Jinping and will signal Beijing becoming the first city to host both the summer and winter versions of the Olympic Games. The Games will run until 20th February and there will be 109 events in 15 disciplines covering 7 sports.

These Winter Olympics are not without controversary. When the games were awarded to Beijing the former IOC President Jacques Rogge stated that staging the winter Games in China would do a lot to help improve human rights and social relations in the country. However, recent events such as the dismantling of democracy in Hong Kong, the persistent persecution of Uighur Muslims, and the troubling case of tennis player, Peng Shuai, have illustrated that this has been far from the case.

Alongside the hosting of the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar, which also has a questionable human rights record, questions have been asked about the integrity of and motivation behind the awarding processes for major events. Protests have been restricted to diplomatic boycotts but Andy Anson, the chief executive of British Olympic Association (BOA) has confirmed that any British athletes who wanted to protest against human rights issues would be supported by officials.

What is taking place and where?

The Birds Nest will not host any events but will be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies, and is one of several venues from 2008 that will be reused as part of the sustainability agenda of these Games. There are three zones where the events will take place – the Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou zones. Beijing will host events at its aquatic centre, including skating, ice hockey and curling. The sliding centre in the Yanqing zone will be home to spectacular speed events such as bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton and also Alpine ski events. The Zhangjiakou zone is where freestyle skiing, cross country skiing, biathlon and ski jumping will take place.

There are seven new events, designed to appeal to female and younger audiences. They include mixed team events in short-track skating, ski jumping and snowboard cross, as well as freestyle big air skiing.

What are the chances of medals for Team GB?

Because the Winter Olympics take place on snow or ice the spectacle of skiers, skaters, bobsleighers taking on the elements offers more uncertainty and excitement than their summer version. However, the UK is not a country that is known for its winter sports. Training and competitions usually take place in venues across Europe – so do we have any chances to improve on the best performance of 5 medals at Sochi (2014) and PyeongChang (2018)?

UK Sport have provided increased funding since 2018 based on the performances at those Games and have set a target of between 3-7 medals from around 50 athletes who will be competing. But where will these medals come from?

Bobsleigh events always attract attention and in these Games Greg Rutherford, the 2012 Olympic Long Jump champion, will be attempting to become the first Team GB athlete to become a medallist at both winter and summer Games. However, any medals are potentially more likely to come from the other British bobsleighs. At the recent World Cup in Latvia, Mica McNeill and Adele Nicholl won a silver medal in the two-person sled as did Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson. At these Games, Brad Hall will also pilot a four-man crew that also includes Nick Gleeson as brakeman. Greg Rutherford will be a pusher in the other crew piloted by Lamin Deen.

There are also high expectations for snowboarders Charlotte Bankes and Katie Ormerod. Charlotte Bankes competed for France in PyeongChang, won two events at the World Cup, while Katie Ormerod was fourth in the slopestyle event.

Will there be more curling success?

For me the Olympic Games are about becoming obsessed with sports that I have not previously watched, or thought I would be interested in. One such sport is Curling, which has its origins in Scotland, and is one where British athletes have enjoyed success. In fact, Great Britain won the men’s event in 1924 and were the holders of that Olympic title until it was reintroduced into the Olympics in 1998.

The most recent gold medal was when Rhona Martin’s team dramatically won gold in 2002 with the last stone of the competition. In 2014 Eve Muirhead was the skip of Team GB’s women’s curling team who won a bronze medal and after a poor performance in 2018 she is back as skip with three new teammates. Bruce Mouat is the skip of an all-new men’s team and also competes in the mixed doubles with Jennifer Dodds.

One to look out for

Finally, one other British born athlete to look out for is Benjamin Alexander who will become the first athlete to represent Jamaica in an Alpine skiing event. He has an interesting background as he is an engineering graduate and a globetrotting DJ. His mother is English, and his father is Jamaica but most importantly he is mentored by Dudley Stokes, who was the pilot of the Jamaican bobsleigh immortalised in the film Cool Runnings. He has only been skiing since 2015 and will be competing in the daunting giant slalom event.

While it may be tough for Team GB to better its medal tally from 2018 there will be plenty of top-class performances to enjoy and we must feel gratitude that these Games are actually going ahead during this global pandemic.

 

This article was first published on OpenLearn.

For more Winter Olympics and Paralympics related articles visit our hub on OpenLearn.