How champion are forged by adversity
An astonishing number of our medal winners have overcome serious illness. And that’s no coincidence, say experts
The STUDY of the mindset required to triumph at the highest level is something that has long fascinated me. It is particularly interesting how adversity — such as serious illness — plays a significant role in forging winners. On the one hand, the threat of losing everything can make someone determined to reach their goals, more dedicated towards victory, and more eager to make the most of any chances they have been given.
But while passion and commitment are undoubtedly key factors, of course you need much more to be a top athlete. As well as innate talent, you have to be relaxed. The ‘ideal performance state’, as sports psychologists call it, is one of calmness, not tension.
Indeed, this is where an experience of adversity can be a great help because it gives the athlete a sense of perspective. The fear of coming second in a sporting event often doesn’t exist in someone who has been through a much more daunting life-changing ordeal.
This development of productive mental processes to cope often teaches people to think on two different planes: one focused narrowly on the immediate steps needed to get better day-by-day; the other more expansively on the much bigger picture of longterm recovery.
This is the perfect mindset required to win at sport — with the best athletes being able to switch between concentrating on the short-term daily routine of training so as to improve their performance — that acquisition of ‘marginal gains’, to use the phrase coined by former Team GB cycling guru Sir Dave Brailsford — and seeking inspiration from the much longerterm hope of a gold medal.
The fact is that people who suffer setbacks are often much more able to concentrate on a future goal as well as having flexibility of thought — both key skills needed in the competitive arena.
Those who have suffered ill-health also learn to appreciate the support of others — be they family or experts such as medical staff and their coaches. While being looked after at their lowest ebb by close family and true friends, they develop a strong judgment about who their real supporters are compared with fairweather friends.
Just as they learn to believe in doctors in whom they entrust their survival hopes, successful athletes learn to have complete faith in their support teams of coaches, trainers and advisers. Indeed, those humble enough to accept advice are far more likely to succeed — unlike those who think they know best.
This is especially true in modern sport where science plays such a vital part in everything from diet to equipment.
Finally, there is the power of positive thinking, which is often bred by a triumph over bad health. No top athlete can afford to be clouded by doubts and fears. Yes, Laura Trott and her fellow medallists have trained incredibly hard, but having been through a serious illness and triumphed, the pressures of sporting competition can be a doddle.
DIVER WITH A BURST SPLEEN
CHRIS MEARS, along with Jack Laugher, won our first Olympic diving gold medal in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard in rio.
But seven years ago, he was in hospital, having burst his spleen, with only a one-in-20 chance of surviving.
While training as a teenager, he didn’t realise he was suffering from glandular fever. Internal swelling compressed his organs so badly that his diving made his spleen rupture. he lost five pints of blood, was put on life support and told that he could never dive again. ‘It definitely gives you a different perspective on life,’ says Chris, 23, from reading. ‘Back then, I was not really a grafter, I was not really a worker. I just floated along without ever concentrating much on anything I did.’
Now, in his Olympic diving discipline, concentration — in perfect synchronicity with his partner — is everything.
CYCLIST WHO HAD A CANCER SCARE
BECKY JAMES won silver in the keirin cycling event at rio and another silver in the sprint. The 24-year-old from Abergavenny in Monmouthshire had to recover from a cervical cancer scare.
Two years ago, a routine smear test showed the highest grade of abnormal cells. A minor operation removed all of the suspect cells, but, still, it was a pivotal moment in the young athlete’s career.
‘The doctor said that if I had waited another year, it could have been completely different,’ she says. ‘It makes you think about things in a very different way. I realised how important your health is over everything else.’
While she was ill, Becky had to take 18 months away from training.
SWIMMER WITH BOWEL DISEASE
SIOBHAN-MARIE O’CONNOR won silver in the 200m individual medley. The 20-year-old from Bath was diagnosed as having ulcerative colitis — an inflammatory bowel disease.
At first, she didn’t realise. ‘Looking back, I have no idea how I managed that,’ she says.
Not only is the illness agonising — the colon becomes inflamed and affected by ulcers — but it also leaves her exhausted.
‘everyone has challenges in whatever sport they are in,’ she says. ‘This is just my thing I have to deal with. I can be a bit of a weakling at times but I know how to manage it.’
RIDER WHO LOST SIGHT IN ONE EYE
FIONA BIGWOOD, 40, won a silver medal in the team dressage.
In 2014, she fell from her horse and fractured her skull — leaving her with a severe visual impairment.
The West Sussex mother-of-three now wears an eye patch because the nerve controlling the right eye’s muscular movements remains injured, making her vision blurred. She says: ‘I don’t recall much of the fall, but I came to in hospital and kept going on about my vision. They were more worried about brain damage and said the eyesight would come back: “Don’t worry — in 90 per cent of cases, in a year you’re fine.
‘But, of course, it didn’t — so I am left with this,’ she says of her patch.
GOLDEN STAR WHO BATTLES ASTHMA
CYCLIST Laura Trott was born four weeks prematurely with a collapsed lung and was transferred to an intensive baby-care unit. She had a
stube inserted to inflate a lung, and her parents feared she wouldn’t make it, as she spent six weeks in hospital.
Then, as a toddler, she was diagnosed with asthma. Her doctor suggested exercise would help with the inflammatory disease of her airways by regulating her breathing.
She took up trampolining but fainted. Having tried swimming, she then took up cycling. She says: ‘Looking back, I feel that having asthma spurred me on rather than hindered me. I was thrown into the sport at a very young age to strengthen my lungs, and once I started doing well I just didn’t want to stop.’
She also suffers from a build-up of excess acid in her stomach. ‘Sometimes when I train hard, it makes me sick. I used to take tablets to try to control the vomiting, but they made me feel worse, so now I just live with it.’
The 24-year-old from Cheshunt, Herts, is Britain’s most successful Olympic female competitor, having added two golds to her tally in Rio.
CYCLIST WITH ALOPECIA
JOanna ROwSeLL SHand, 27, from Carshalton, South London, won another gold medal in the women’s cycling team pursuit at Rio to add to her 2012 success. She suffers from alopecia areata (where hair is lost in patches), which has left her with practically no hair.
Joanna has suffered from the condition since she was ten — and has faced the cruel fate of seeing her hair grow back several times, only for it to fall out again.
‘People say I was brave to go on the podium in the Olympics with my bald head, but I just wanted to get my medal,’ she says. ‘Really, the brave thing was learning to deal with it when I was young — going to my first training camp when nobody knew me or about my condition.’
GYM HERO WITH GLANDULAR FEVER
dOuBLe gold medal-winning gymnast Max whitlock has been plagued by ill-health since contracting glandular fever earlier this year.
His coach says Max, 23, from Hemel Hempstead, Herts, has not fully recovered and they have to tailor training as he’s ‘still slightly fatigued at times’.
Max said at the time: ‘The only thing is rest, which is really annoying for an athlete, because you want to push as hard as possible.’
GYMNAST DIAGNOSED WITH ADHD AS A CHILD
LOuIS SMITH, 27, has just won a second consecutive silver medal on the pommel horse.
as a child, the Peterborough gymnast was diagnosed with attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder (adHd). ‘I was seven when I was diagnosed with it and put on the drug Ritalin,’ he says. For five years, Louis — who won Strictly Come dancing in 2012 — was on medication until gymnastics became his obsession. ‘It taught me discipline and respect,’ he says.