AUGUST 2001
FSU, TALLAHASSEE CLIMATE HELP MAKE WINNERS
This spring, 36 British athletes spent six weeks in Tallahassee battling heat, humidity, exhaustion, dehydration and several cases of severe sunburn. No wonder they can't wait to come back next year.
The British Olympic Association calls it Warm Weather Training,
and for eight years, it has paid huge dividends for the British
Olympic Team - gold medals and at least one athlete who broke
all the records.
In 1995, Triple Jumper Jonathan Edwards used the camp, held annually
at FSU, to move beyond mononucleosis and disappointing performances
and win Olympic Gold and a world record.
Edwards was one of 21 British medalists in last year's Sydney Olympics who trained in Tallahassee.
This year, on an 85-degree April day, British jumps coach John Crotty brought about a dozen high jumpers and sprinters to FSU's Mike Long Track.
"The weather here is absolutely brilliant," Crotty
exclaimed.
Tallahassee's formidable climate does, in fact, form the foundation
for the cross-Atlantic partnership.
Heat was important for cooler countries like England in their preparations for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Christopher Campbell, a member of the Tallahassee Sports Council in 1993, realized FSU had world-class athletic facilities and weather tougher than Atlanta's.
"I knew we could offer more heat and more humidity, for a longer time, than anywhere in the South," Campbell said.
The British Olympic Association chose Tallahassee for training.
Campbell worked closely with FSU Assistant Athletic Director
Bernie Waxman to ensure that the training demands of all the
events were satisfied.
And they were. Rower Steve Redgrave took advantage of the Warm Weather Training on the way to his fourth gold medal in the Atlanta Olympics.
Heptathlete Denise Lewis was at FSU that spring and became the only Englishwoman to win a medal in Atlanta. Redgrave and Lewis were Male/Female British Athletes of the Year in 1996.
Jonathan Edwards is another who found spectacular success.
Edwards came to Tallahassee in 1995, battling illness and trailing
a year's disappointing results behind him.
His mononucleosis dried up, and he credits FSU Assistant Coach Dennis Nobles with improving his mental outlook. He wanted to regain his 1993 form.
Instead, he surpassed his previous best jumps, and everybody else's as well. Just two months after leaving Tallahassee, Edwards broke the world record for the triple jump. One month later, he broke his own record twice in one night.
British athletes returned to Tallahassee in 2000 to train
for Sydney.
The Sydney games were a stirring success. Redgrave, Lewis and
Edwards all took home gold. In all, 21 of the 29 British medal
winners had trained in Tallahassee.
"We've got ideal conditions here," Crotty said. "The weather is perfect, the staff and facilities are fantastic and the whole city takes an interest in us." - Brad Parsons
|
ContentsCharlie BarnesNews NotesCompressionIn MemoriamFavorite Prof |
