Gold Rush

A significant part of preparation for a big meet is purely psychological. This time round I've taken to reading - first up, Michael Johnson's Gold Rush, which he writes to be a read as a manual for "what makes an Olympic Champion". With his television work for the BBC Johnson's a self-proclaimed adopted-Brit so the book contains interviews with heroes like Chris Hoy and Steve Redgrave, but also has the lion's share of swimming pedigree too, including Rebecca Adlington, Mark Spitz, and Ian Thorpe. The interviews are woven through the text to bolster and contextualize the stepping-stones upon which Johnson dances and skips. It's genuinely excellent, and it's the best book of its kind in my admittedly rather narrow experience. Each interviewee, not least Johnson himself, has a particular outlook regarding sporting success, a particular set of beliefs and practices, of dos and donts. There's a large degree of overlap, but what's most interesting is the common trait, the shared factor. One such factor is visualization. Another is total self-absorption. Both of these are best illuminated by Chris Hoy when he tells Johnson what is was like to witness the team in the heat before his own break the World Record at the Beijing Olympics.

It was about being able to say, right, none of that is in your control; you have to focus on what you can control, and that is your performance. I was rehearsing in my head over and over the perfect race, from the moment I started to the moment I finished. Having that strength. At that time I did a lot of work beforehand, preparing for that potential situation to arise. It worked almost flawlessly.