Girls Go For Cycling Gold

 

by EIS - 15.12.08

Following a busy summer of Phase One testing, over the last month Phase Two of the Girls4Gold Olympic talent search programme got underway with sports specific talent assessment events taking place in cycling, rowing, canoeing and bob skeleton.

54 athletes selected from Phase One stepped through the doors of the Manchester Velodrome with the hope of impressing the British Cycling Olympic coaches. The Olympic hopefuls were put through their paces on a range of assessments on the track, in the physiology lab and on mountain bikes to see whether there were any budding Rebecca Romeros or Victoria Pendletons in the making.

Beijing triple Olympic gold medalist Chris Hoy was on hand to give the Girls4Gold an insight into life as an elite cyclist and the demands and commitment required to take on the Olympic journey. The first assessment day was rounded off with the opportunity to attend a ‘Revolution’ event – a great chance to see the world’s best track cyclists in action.

Isabella Burke, who took part in the sprint cycling assessment, enjoyed the experience:

“Getting on the track bikes and working with the Olympic coaches was amazing, as was meeting Chris Hoy. It was hard work but I really wanted the chance to investigate my Olympic potential in cycling and feel I’ve been given the opportunity to do that this weekend.”

The second part of the Phase Two cycling weekend involved a mountain biking assessment examining the athletes’ ability to acquire the basic skills of bike riding. The weekend was finished off with the girls putting their new skills into action in a competitive mountain biking time trial.

Phil Dixon, head coach to British Cycling’s mountain bike programme, was pleased with the talent he saw during the assessment weekend:

“The quality of athlete has been high and I’ve been impressed with the way the girls have really gone for it – you can see they’re really up for the challenge. I’m looking forward to moving into the next phase of the project and working with the selected group to examine their future medal winning potential towards 2012 and beyond.”

Natalie Dunman, Talent Identification Scientist within the English Institute of Sport and Girls4Gold Lead, was equally excited about how the Phase Two British Cycling assessment weekend unfolded:

“We saw a number of athletes that showed definite promise across the range of assessments, and their competitive attitudes were equally impressive. There was a real ‘buzz’ throughout the weekend, and we are certainly off to a good start on what will be a long but very exciting journey.”

The aim of Phase Two is to shortlist a small number of exceptional athletes who will be invited to take part in a Talent Confirmation training programme. This will be an unrivalled opportunity for the select few to train under the guidance of Olympic level coaches in British Cycling's programme, to assess the hopefuls’ ability to develop as a world class cyclist. 

Meanwhile, UK Sport have launched a different type of recruitment drive, for sport scientists interested in working within the field of talent identification and development to join the World Class UK Talent Team. Click here for more information.