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Talent identification

Frontline technical solutions

A child having their height measured by an adult whilst an observer makes notes on a clipboard

The frontline solutions arm of the Performance Pathway Team works side-by-side with Olympic and Paralympic sports to identify and develop exceptional sporting talent and build sustainable performance pathways, leading to more medals being won at Olympic and Paralympic games.

The purpose of the frontline solutions work is to answer questions like:

  • How do you create a talent profile capable of predicting future Olympic/Paralympic potential?
  • How many athletes do we need in the pipeline now to achieve our medal ambitions in Pyeongchang 2018, Tokyo 2020 and beyond?
  • Is it possible to transfer sporting talent from one sport to another? How old is too old and what sports transfer best?
  • What does an exceptional development environment look like and how can we create, replicate and sustain it?
  • How can we accurately measure an athlete’s future ‘headroom’ to develop?
  • What role does the art of science and coaching play in identifying and developing extraordinary talent?

The frontline solutions team also aims to provoke a culture of innovation and curiosity across all sports and challenge current thinking around performance pathways. Some of the interesting questions we are working on include:

  • Have you ever wondered why some athletes like Steve Redgrave go on to be serial gold medal winners and why some don't?
  • Why was Rebecca Romero so successful in a boat (rowing) and then on a bike within as little as two years?
  • Does the size of Tom Daley’s hands really make him a good diver and have clean entries into the water?
  • Do you really need to have completed 10,000 hours of practice before being able to go onto win an Olympic medal?
  • Is it possible to look at hormonal markers of training and predict who will be Olympians of the future?
  • Is there a relationship between the number of competitions undertaken during an athlete’s development years and performance success? Do gold medal winning athletes compete more or less and what age?
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