Sporting success

Four lessons learnt from international athletes during the times of coronavirus and beyond.

Chloe is dreaming of the Paralympics despite the fact that she can’t leave her house. Former GB sprinter Rich believes that we should celebrate all forms of success and actually the failures can help us the most. Free diver Nicky explains that beating cancer enabled her to dive deep without any equipment and young cricketer Callum is reaching out to all young people to help their mental health by setting up a charity with global athletes as his ambassadors.

In just 8 episodes of Listening Archive podcast, we have spoken to people all over the world giving their advice and providing us with hope that we can get through this. We’ve collected some of our best bits of advice from our latest episode where we interviewed leading athletes about how they are currently coping and what lessons we can learn from today’s sporting practises.

Paralympian Chloe Ball-Hopkins has faced many challenges in her life. She is a BBC reporter as well as a GB archer. Coronavirus means that she has to shield herself in her house in the UK but that hasn’t stopped her from trying to make things better. Chloe has been working on setting up the disability sports television network. She’s frustrated that the only time we get to see disabled athletes is every four years. The great thing about Chloe is that she hasn’t let challenges stand in her way. As many people across the world try to find different ways to stop repression, it’s also our duty to call out discrimination of another kind and realise that with a greater sense of conviction- we will all find a way to celebrate every athletes achievement with a sense of parity.

Former GB medallist Richard Buck has known both strength and adversity in his career. Previously a Team GB 400 metre Sprinter, Richard is a former European champion, World silver medallist and along with taking part in 2008 and 2012 Olympics, he has won a total of seven international medals. Rich spoke to us about the mental willpower that’s needed to become a top performing athlete. Whilst many sportspeople across the world have had their training routine altered, he said that it is the mental resilience that will keep people going. He said that part of the problem would be that you don’t know what other athletes are doing with their training regimes but this time is not only one to rest and recuperate but also to realise the changes that you might be able to make to your training regime to make you stronger.

Nineteen -year old cricketer Callum Lea set up charity Sporting Minds UK to assist young athletes with support and help with mental health issues. His charity has seen a huge spike in referrals since coronavirus started because career development is basically at a standstill. Several athletes were aiming for the Olympics, some were hoping to move from amateur to professional level and others are distressed at their inability to play their sport which is usually the very thing that helps them to stop feeling stressed. Callum advises that the best thing you can do is to talk to people around you to explain how you are feeling and help you with a routine that will keep you grounded.

GB free diver Nicky Margieson Schellander dives for distances of over 40 metres without any equipment. Nicky survived ovarian cancer in order to become of the UK’s top performing free-divers and the resilience learnt from her cancer battle has enabled her to conquer fears head on. Nicky is a great believer in finding the stillness and quiet before your competition whatever shape that may be at the moment. Whether it’s on the court, pitch or on the ocean, we can all prepare our mind before we face the waves of adversity.

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