Great expectations and how to handle them was the theme of the last team meeting before the most successful Britain swim squad ever assembled for battle in European waters left Budapest today as the only continental squad with its main long-course mission still ahead of it.
In the wake of a record of six gold medals atop a tally of 18 podium prizes that exceeded expectations over seven days at the European Championships, head Britain coach Dennis Pursley, told his troops that there was only one way to make sure nothing blew them off course: "No matter what others expect of you, it comes down to this: always do the very best that you can, in all you do, at all times - and the rest will follow."
Pursley acknowledged the rub of unexpected success. “Obviously I am optimistic that they will handle that [expectation]. But it ... needs watching. We’ll be working with our psychologists. The price of success and exceeding expectation is that expectations next time are even higher and that will now be the case in Delhi” for the Commonwealth Games in October, the 2010 "benchmark priority" for the Britain squad as they race in home-nations colours against the Australian Dolphins who have long played understudy to the aquatic superpower, the United States.
Cracking Australia at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Pursley has said, probably ticks the box of 'unrealistic expectation', given that we are just a decade beyond an Olympics at which Britain won no medals when the hosts in Sydney hauled in 5 golds among 18 medals, a catch uncannily similar to Britain’s Budapest success but in a hotter cauldron. But there was no reason to believe that Britain could not vie for third best team in the world, said Pursely.
That is no small feat, even in Europe-only context and setting aside the likes of Japan and China. In Budapest, with many racing with minimal rest from training, only France, led my a phenomenal male sprint force capable of matching American might and a surging Camille Lacourt, and Russia led Britain on gold count.
Gaul, with three more medals overall than Britain and eight crowns among its 21 visits to the podium, took a decision in the wake of the 1996 Olympic Games to turn “professional” in the pool. That coincided with Paul Palmer’s plea to then Prime Minister John Major for funding after he won silver in the 400m freestyle off the back of training in a crumbling 25-yard pool in Lincoln. A commitment to ring-fence sports funding from the National Lottery followed.
Down the line, British Swimming now enjoys £15m of backing from British Gas for grass roots development aimed at everything from keeping children safe by teaching them to swim right through to creating the post-Adlington generation of elite racers. Such funding and the team of quality support behind the scenes of Britain's results in the pool, is regarded with envy by many nations who fall well shy of that position.
Palmer remains Britain’s most success swimmer in European waters, with three golds among 9 medals over five championships. Fran Halsall, 100m freestyle champion this week, has five medals in one championship, a record. Like flatmate Elizabeth Simmonds, 200m backstroke champion, and Ellen Gandy, bronze medallist in the 200m butterfly, were fished out for Smart Track selection as 13 and 14-year-olds. Then head coach Bill Sweetenham took them on altitude camp in Mexico and on tour to the US Open and down to Australia, with tutors in tow. But his mission, he said, was to leave Britain with the best coaching team in the world. When he returned to Australia in 2007, he said: “Britain now has the best team of coaches you could wish to work with. Some of them will be leaders in world waters one day. Ben Titley has the makings of a truly great coach.”
Titley is coach at Loughborough University to charges, including Simmonds, Halsall, Kate Haywood and Liam Tancock, who accounted for more than half of Britain’s success in Budapest, with two gold, five silver and three bronze medals. Halsall and Simmonds, eight medals to their names in all, shared a room in Budapest, their success prompting one team member to joke: "They’ve put a star on their door now and we all have to bow as we pass it."
Britain’s strength is by no means confined to the centres of excellence but extends to outpost units that have long worked well in their own right: Bill Furniss and 400m champion here and double Olympic champion of 2008, Rebecca Adlington, at Nottingham, make regular visits to Loughborough, while Hannah Miley and her father and coach Patrick up in Garioch in Aberdeenshire, still suffer some of the things that Palmer complained about back in 1996.
"Yes, our regular pool has been closed for works and I’ve had to train in one pool in a public lane and with people doing aqua-aerobics," laughed Miley. "Its not ideal. I try to get round it by training at 2pm instead of later, so that the pool is nnot so busy. But there’s something to be said for doing it without everything being perfect. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as they say."
Adlington is happy to note that no matter which programme you train in these days, all roads lead to the core of an “exceptional unit”. She said: “There is such a buzz in the team. We’re a unit. It’s hard to explain it but you don’t even have to say anything. The atmosphere is just amazing. One of the coaches said that they used to fight with each other all the time many years ago. Now they work together, they support each other. The coaches say this is the best team they have ever worked on. We were always a bit too individualistic. Now we work together as a team and help each other.”
Watching Gaul at work this week spoke of a similar situation to that in Britain, and though there are clearly some divisions among programme and coaches (the competition between the sprint crew spills well beyond the pool and has at times been positively antagonistic) , they managed to pull together when it counted in Budapest this week. And how: this was the first championship with France at the helm on medals and points with results achieved not only by the male sprint crew but across the board, men and women in a wide number of events.
Fred Bousquet’s blast in the 50m free final sealed an astonishing run on gold from 50m to 1,500m, only Paul Biedermann (GER) over 200m able to break the rush of Alain Bernard (100m); Yannick Agnel (400m) and Sebastien Rouault (800m, 1500m). Camille Lacourt has set a new textile standard in sprint backstroke events that will be tough to match, while the likes of Fabien Gilot and William Meynard are helping France to remain on track to cause upset in a 4x100m free when it truly counts in world waters. Medley,with Hugues Duboscq too.
After a dominant win in the 4x100m medley, the breaststroke ace who seems unrushed to win gold on his own but keen to pan for it for Gaul, said: "My obligation was to retain the lead given over to me by Lacourt, because Bousquet and Gilot already competed in the 50m finals this afternoon. Our entire French swimming team couldn't have dreamed of a better conclusion." Spot on - and that thought extending too to Romain Barnier’s Marseilles unit.
Meanwhile, Britain, said Pursley, has put a “prep meet” behind it. “Some trained right through it and weren't focussed on any particular preparation or result at all. Others were partially rested. It’s been a mixed bag,” he said. “We're in a good place right now. I don't want to read too much into it. We may be closer to peak performance than the plan called for but if things go according to plan we should be faster in Delhi. There is enough time to get in one more full block of work before we rest ready for the [Commonwealth] Games.” The final few England places will be decided at nationals in Sunderland this week.
Asked to sum up what it was like working with the Britain team he said: "All positive - that says it all." Having had his own battles with athletes and administrators down the years when leading national teams in the US, Australia and Canada, Pursley came with a reputation for being a hardliner. It is a role, however, that he has not needed to play. "I was asked if I needed to use an iron fist. I've been known to do that in the past but this team does not need that. They cooperate, they really gel together and support each other, and I don't mean in the sense of cheering for each other. I mean that they share a common goal and understand each other. They feel part of the same journey. They are all very focussed, very cooperative. We don't have to worry about people getting out of line or doing something they shouldn't be doing. It really makes it a pleasure to work with them.
It was, he said, "very fair" to refer to his predecessor Bill Sweetenham as the man who needed to use an iron fist - and Britain was now "reaping the rewards of his legacy". Pursley's job was to carry on the good work and see it through to the "once-in-a-lifetime chance for British swimmers to step up at a home Games in London".
The legacy of Sweetenham is the legacy of all those who have worked at helping turn Britain around in, hindsight may well tell us, record time. Coach Colin Stripe, for Halsall in Liverpool and coaches Graham Bassi and Marc Spackman in Lincoln for Simmonds, sports scientists, doctors, pysios, officials, unheralded staff at British Swimming, some of whom have seen generations come, generations go down the years.
Britain has its Splash Awards, run by Karen Pickering and a great start down the road to finding a way of honouring achievement and placing it in a timeless frame of fame. The hall is missing: Taylor, Grinham, Lonsbrough, Wilkie, Moorhouse, Palmer, Smith, Davies and through to Adlington and crew in Beijing. With London 2012 looming, time to build some footings and foundations from which to build what happens next, borrowing lessons learned from the valuable way in which the US honours its heroes and hands down inspiration to the next pool from which champions may leap.
Sweetenham created a strong core and showed his troops the true meaning of working side-by-side in the way that men and women on a military mission might recognise, respect, cooperation and knowledge among the keys to the chemistry of success. In Halsall and Simmonds, beyond their obvious sporting talent, coaches, from Stripe to Sweetenham saw spirit and cheek, attitude important when the chips are up or down.
Not everyone saw eye-to-eye with Sweetenham, some were openly opposed to him. Many raised their sights and found their path in a world of greater discipline and cooperation of the whole, some did not. And that rub, uncomfortable as it was, also played a part in taking Britain to where it is: the harvest is reaped from sun and rain.
Pursley and the team around him will have their own seasons of rain and shine. The head coach believes it important to appreciate what's gone to recognise what lies ahead: "I don't want my legacy to be the guy who came and let it all unravel. It's important for all of us to recognise where we came from and how we got to where we are. It has taken a lot of discipline and hard work by all.
"I'm really proud of this team. It has been a real test for them to come in with a ready made excuse of ‘I'm not rested ... this is not quite right ... I'm not quite where I'd need to be to race at best’ but then set that aside, step up, make finals and in many cases races for medals. Most teams would come into that situation, roll over and play dead but they took it as an opportunity and stood up and raced.”
Next time they do so, Britain will race united in the divided colours of England, Scotland and Wales, with some of those missing from Budapest joining the fray, including Stockport teammates James Goddard and Michael Rock and three London 2012 hopefuls who grew up together at Britain’s former offshore centre on the Gold Coast in Australia, Chris Walker-Hebborn, Adam Brown and Marco Loughran.
