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olympic cycling coaches scout out girls4gold

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Jessica Whitehorn 16 October 2008

Phase One testing for the Girls4Gold Talent Identification Programme came to an end this weekend as over 300 Olympic hopefuls rose to the challenge in Loughborough in the hope that they may discover they have the potential for 2012 medal success in the sports of cycling, rowing, canoeing, windsurfing, modern pentathlon or bob skeleton.

Hot off the heels of their success in Beijing, Dave Brailsford, the Performance Director of British Cycling, alongside his team of elite coaches came to cast their eyes over the applicants, to see whether there were any budding Rebecca Romeros or Victoria Pendletons in the making.

Girls4Gold is a joint initiative between UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in partnership with the six targeted Olympic sports. Following the launch of the initiative, led by Olympians Victoria Pendleton and Shelley Rudman in June, over 900 17 to 25 year old women had applied to the initiative by the end of the same month. However, following the huge interest in Girls4Gold as a result of the success of Team GB in Beijing, the application deadline was extended, attracting a further 400 applications. 

Speaking at the testing day in Loughborough, Brailsford, the mastermind if the most successful British Cycling team in history, said:

“If we ran an experiment involving a set of athletic triplets of identical ability and placed one in Australian Cycling, one in German Cycling and one in British Cycling, we have a high degree of confidence that our programme would produce the best result at this moment in time. 

“Our success at British Cycling is down to the fact that we are a team of people who strive for excellence, every day, in everything that we do. Anyone that shines through from Girls4Gold will know that they are coming into an environment that is about unrelentless pursuit of excellence and a programme focussed on winning gold medals.”

Dan Hunt, coach to Olympic Cycling Champion Rebecca Romero who is a former Olympic sliver medallist in rowing, knows exactly what it will take to get one of the Girls4Gold to the start line in four years time. He said:

“I’m really impressed by the attitude of the girls being tested here today. There is a strong realisation that this is their best opportunity to discover their potential and they are giving it their all.

“I’ve seen some impressive scores on the Watt bike tests – with a few exceptional performances that are approaching world class standards already. Everyone at British Cycling is really excited about the athletes Girls4Gold might uncover and the opportunity to further enhance our chances towards London 2012.” 

Chelsea Warr, Head of Talent in UK Sport has been equally excited about how Girls4Gold has unfolded.

“The primary aim of Girls4Gold has been to undertake the most extensive female talent recruitment drive ever undertaken in Great Britain.

“I think it’s fair to say that through the partnerships with our six targeted National Governing Bodies we have achieved this with over 900 young athletic women stepping through our doors over the past three months.

“We are now very excited about moving into Phase Two of our project that will be about short listing a select number of potential gems and carefully examining their future medal winning potential towards 2012 and beyond.”

Now that Phase One for Girls4Gold is complete the UK Sport/EIS Talent Team and Olympic coaches will begin the process of analysing the data of all 900-plus applicants tested. The aim is to shortlist a small number of exceptional athletes who will be invited back for further, sports specific Phase Two testing across one or potentially several of the six targeted sports over the next five months.

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