I\u2019ve never coached at the Olympic level.\u00a0\u00a0But I\u2019ve had a couple of \u201cnational\u201d quality athletes, and lots of \u201cstate\u201d athletes, and that gave me an understanding of what goes into making decisions in an athletic season.\u00a0\u00a0Certainly it starts with talent.\u00a0\u00a0At the highest level, everyone is talented; there is nothing that can make up for a lack of that.\u00a0\u00a0Add to that fierce dedication to \u201cthe goal\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Without that dedication, talent is wasted.\u00a0\u00a0Every coach had that the \u201cmost talented\u201d who couldn\u2019t didn\u2019t have the fortitude to excel.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a \u201clead the horse to water\u201d thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when an athlete has the combination of talent and dedication, as the coach, you \u201cget the shot\u201d. You get the opportunity to use all of your knowledge, skills, and experience to hone that athlete to an elite level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next factor is structural. Does the athlete have the physical structure to handle the extreme stresses of training that are required? Where is the \u201cbreaking point\u201d, and how far can you go before it\u2019s \u201ctoo late\u201d? There\u2019s a reason athletes can go through an entire season, and then, at the crucial moment, pull a muscle. They have reached the limit, of speed, of stress, and of training \u2013 the edge between the success and disaster. And they go too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there\u2019s the luck factor. As athletes train, it stresses not just muscle and tendon, bone and ligaments. It stresses their entire bodies, from the brain to the immune system. There are points where they are most vulnerable to sickness, where the impact of hard training drops their defenses. While coaching teams, I could tell to the week when some would get sick. It was around the week of highest intensity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s one of the tough decisions I\u2019ve made as a coach.\u00a0\u00a0I took a group of athletes to the National High School Championships in New York City.\u00a0\u00a0One had \u201chis shot\u201d, the chance to win.\u00a0\u00a0But that morning of the race, he came down to breakfast looking awful. He was coughing, struggling to breath, and running a fever.\u00a0\u00a0There wasn\u2019t really a choice, but telling him that he wasn\u2019t going to run when he was so close, the number literally already on his jersey:\u00a0\u00a0that was hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what\u2019s this essay all about? The Olympics haven\u2019t even started yet, and athletes are falling by the wayside to COVID. How could they not have been vaccinated? Common sense \u2013 well common sense would seem to say they could have easily protected themselves from this threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s true, they could have. But let\u2019s look at the timing. And because I was a track coach, let\u2019s look at it through the lens of a track athlete, one likely to have spent a lifetime, and particularly the last five years (one more than expected) to make the Olympic Team and compete in the Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two parts to making it to the Olympics in track and field. The first is making the \u201cstandard\u201d. That\u2019s a mark or ranking established by the International Track Federation (IAAF) that says you\u2019re good enough to compete in the games. And the second part is you have to actually \u201cmake the team\u201d. In the United States, that means finish in the top three at the Olympic Trials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So as an athlete, you have three goals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– run (or jump or throw) well enough to qualify for the Games<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– finish in the top three in the Trials to actually make the national team<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– run (or jump or throw) at the Olympic Games themselves (medal?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Achieving the standard can occur as much as a year before the games. But the other two come in quick succession. The Olympic Trials were in June, track and field starts in Tokyo next week. Track athletes are on carefully designed training programs, schedules set up to allow for two \u201cmaximal performances\u201d, one at the Trials and one at the Games. That is, unless they are still in college, then there\u2019s one more maximal performance, at the NCAA Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These athletes did everything they could to protect themselves from COVID.\u00a0\u00a0They had little contact with others, wore protective gear, and literally went to practice and went home \u2013 that was it.\u00a0\u00a0When they became eligible to get the vaccine, in mid-April, many of them were right at that moment when there training was at the highest intensity \u2013 and knew they were most vulnerable to sickness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their \u201cteams\u201d, coaches, trainers, and the athlete; weighed the risk. If they got sick from the vaccine, there\u2019s lost training time at a critical point. If training is disrupted then maybe there isn\u2019t the \u201cmaximal\u201d performance \u2013 no Olympics. But, of course, if the athlete gets COVID \u2013 well that\u2019s much worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if they didn\u2019t get the vaccine in April, then surely not in May \u2013 nor June before the trials. And while maybe right after the trials would be the \u201cshot to get the shot\u201d, that would still disrupt a training cycle designed for Olympic medals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their COVID protections were working \u2013 they dodged the virus for over a year. I\u2019m sure when it was all added up, some athletes took the chance and got the vaccine. And some, took the chance and didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was one more gamble, one more risk to take in the quest to achieve their goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"