Life’s ups and downs
Having got through a 2-hour 30-min session on the turbo this morning whilst watching what we think may be, the last but one weekend of having live biathlon on TV this winter. We called it a day after that, since I have had a week when the Covid situation has really got my down and I have had difficulty keeping my thoughts straight. I was chatting on the phone this morning to a friend and saying that ‘you know’ blah blah blah…… When I am feeling a bit down, I try to think how fortunate I am, compared with other people’s much greater problems, since after all I am in good health and my fitness level is fine. That doesn’t always work though, because you then feel sad for them too, and they are not all in good health. In the biathlon today we were both hoping that the French athlete Emilien Jacquelin, would be having a better race this week after his disaster last week when he had five misses on one shoot. We all know how bad it feels to have such a rotten day at an event. This week he started well, but his race ended just exactly the same as it did the previous week, which was complete agony to watch. What could possible have gone wrong to miss all the targets? How could that happen to a top competitor? One seems to think that it was a motivation hole in his game. It’s so hard to keep your head on straight in these times, who knows what else could have been happening in his life. Watching that did not help to lift my spirits at all.
After a coffee break sitting in the sunshine in our dressing gowns with Birdy the cat, Steve came in and put on the European Athletics Indoor Championships Meet from Toruń, Poland.’’ We were watching that, and listening to Tony Minichielo commentating on Pole Vault, when Steve reminded me that some years ago, at round about this time of year were on holiday in St. Moritz to watch the Bobsleigh and Skelton event that is held there. We were making our way carefully in the snow down the very steep path that takes spectators along side the track right to the end. Steve is as big a fan of the women on the GBR team, as he is of the men, he had been talking about well-known British Athletics coach, Tony Minichielo’s wife Nicola, who was a quite successful two-woman-bobber with, a World Cup win under her belt.
Anyway, Stephen and I were stepping along through the snow when there in front of us was the cracking looking Nicola Minichielo, being interviewed for TV. At that point Steve was not looking where he was stepping but at his heroine, as close up as he had ever seen her. He was grinning all over his face until he slipped, then slid six feet and landed on his back with his feet up in the air, right at the surprised looking woman’s feet, literally at her feet! She stopped taking to the TV guy and bent over and picked Steve up as if he was a dropped teddy bear looking most concerned and taking no notice of the TV man. Steve had gone to jelly at that point, and I stayed well out of the way whilst he was so powerfully helped to his feet and brushed down. He had the camera in his pocket at that point, so sadly the incident was not recorded but it has been one of his Bobsleigh-holiday-happiest-memories even since. We had a huge laugh again this morning just remembering those few moments, as we listened to Nicola’s husband talking on our TV.
Steve has been my own coach ever since we started in the sport, considering that I had to learn Front Crawl to even take part in my first few races. I could swim, but only Breast Stroke and Back Stroke and had never raced at any sport ever before; dancing was my thing as a child and teenager. He has never pushed me to work harder than I wanted to go. I did not have any confidence at all, but he was always there for me with what guidance I needed, without putting me under pressure, since I was over fifty when I started. Steve had been involved in swimming competitively when he was younger and having had a good deal of success with his team mates. Having a lot of success with back stroke events, 8th in English School’s Nationals and couple of 2nd at Southern Counties and a some county wins including 100 mtrs Butterfly.
In our last thirty years in Triathlon, he has always coached anybody who asked. His first elite athlete James Clarke had many a good day thanks to having Steve behind him. Stephen has coached our club in Littlehampton and we had enjoyed many happy days at events big and small. He is well known for his own achievements of having competed in well over thirty Ironman events himself as well as leading our club group.
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