The Stress of Success
Jack Saunders: “When you’re signing autographs […] you aren’t at the computer, writing.”
Did you know that at the top of outdoor sports the biggest hurdles to success are success and illness?
People say that winning the World’s (the world championship road race) in cycling gives you a jinx. Not many can thrive the next season with that rainbow jersey on their back. Or the yellow jersey from winning the Tour.
The main reason why, they all say, is because of all the speaking engagements and hand-shaking. They don’t have time to train anymore. Just eat. Hang out in smoky rooms. Travel. Everyone knows that it kills their fitness, but somehow they all think they can beat it. Or maybe it’s just in their contract and they know what it’s doing to them.
The other thing is that when you become a pro the first test is just if you can survive The Life. It’s just as much about air travel and living out of dufflebags as it is about bike racing. Can you hack it? Thrive on it? All the athletes have their little rituals for sleeping on planes. Little pillows, walkmans. It’s ALL about travel at that point.
And, heck, the racing itself becomes less about racing and more about how well you can ride REALLY close to cars and motorcycles. How well you thrive on exhaust fumes. Whether extremely loud noise bothers you.
I remember when I did my first high level xc ski race in Vail, Colorado, and there was a helicopter overhead and snowmobile with camera alongside. It totally distracted me. I was watching them. –Not quite the total concentration called for to actually ski fast.
Lastly, it seems like the main thing that determines who will be at any given Olympics is who isn’t sick. They say that at any given time that 80% of elite skiers have a cold. That pretty much determines your finishing order.
All these things are big surprises to up and coming talent who win their first regional titles based on skill and talent.
When a coach looks at a superfast young kid I think he must first wonder: Is this kid going to be healthy? Does he have the frame? They don’t give a rip about results. Anyone can go fast.
In Russia they can look at you if you’re a teen and say if you’re going to the Olympics. It’s no big deal. That’s what you’ll do. You just follow the path they show you.
Over here the scene pushes every kid to panic from early on as to whether he’ll make the next year’s HS varsity squad, so that every race he does like it’s his last. We get about a 99% dropout burnout rate. We use the same method all the way up to selecting our Oly team, where we have our kids kill each other to get on the team. Everyone knows that your best race of the year is the one to get on the team. After that you just struggle against illness and burnout. Meaning, all the World Cup events, Olys, actual races you supposedly are racing because of. We have a hard time cracking the Top 50.
I hung out with US Oly people once. They cried a lot. Snubbed me.
I don’t think any Russkie drops out. He just does what he does.
I hung out with Euro racers a couple times and they were casual. They horsed around. Asked ME what wax *I* was using then borrowed some! I read that when the world champ came to stay at an American’s house, the American was nervous at first, but the Champ just started helping chop wood and played with the kids.
Did I tell you I brought the former Soviet ski coach/director to Michigan to teach us how to really ski last winter? That was something. I noticed that he treated everyone equally. A true democrat. He liked people, especially kids. He was 68. He came from Siberian poverty. He coached 30 world champs and was a 4-time gold medalist himself. He was supposed to be our next US director. No go. I don’t think the party boys liked his style. Too much work? He’s available for weekend hire now. He kicked our butts. Talk about peristaltic rhythm! When it came time for him to analyze our skiing everything he said was in rhythm. People laughed a bit, but it made perfect sense. He was giving us his mojo. yes yes yes yes yes yes now now now now now i see i see i see i see left side left side left side chin down chin down chin down.
