65 reasons to be happy!

I am finally back in London after the Olympics and the well deserved rest. It’s been an amazing few months. I did not have much time to write on the blog and I promise to keep it up to date more in the future. I was busy working for our greatest team: Team GB. The last few months of preparation have been frantic and culminated with an incredible Olympiad in which Team GB won 65 medals finishing with an historical 3rd place in the medal table after the superpowers China and USA.

This is the result of 4 years of incredible dedication not only by our athletes but also, coaches, administrators, science and medicine support and lots of people who contributed to the success of the team. The public was amazing, every venue had such a brilliant atmosphere and the support we all received was truly inspirational. It was for me a privilege and an honour to work with such a talented group of people in the last few years and with amazing support teams during the games. I will cherish the memories for years to come. The British sporting system has changed enormously since I arrived in the UK in 2001 and I can say that there is an exciting scientific and coaching community which is envied by the rest of the World.

Success in sport is due to many aspects: funding, environment, coaching, organisations structures, science and medicine, engineering, vision and belief that miracles happen to people who believe in them. GB was10th in the medal table with 30 medals in Athens in 2004 and is now in the top 3, well done everyone involved in Olympic Sports in the UK. 500 athletes, 50 million strong, you all are part of our greatest team!

I will write more about the Olympics in the next few weeks, I am still going through some data and will write more about what I have seen and what the trends are. Also I will keep writing about science in sport.