Nicole Cooke’s choice: focus or vision?
In sport, focus is everything: it is what takes athletes to the top of their field, and what keeps them there.
Vision is something completely different: it is for athletes who, after years at the top, wish to put something back into their sport.
Focus helped Team GB to win its record clutch of cycling golds in Beijing last year. After Beijing, when many riders suffered post-Olympic blues, one rider kept focus: Nicole Cooke, who went on to achieve the remarkable double of Olympic and world road-racing champion in the same year.
Few can maintain focus and vision at the same time. Lance Armstrong manages both, but he has huge commercial and logistical backing.
After her phenomenal year Nicole set out to put something back by creating Vision 1, a women’s road racing team. The dream did not endure – she blames the credit crisis, but there was an element of chauvinism. A week ago I interviewed Nicole for The Times and she spoke at length on her dreams for Vision 1, her disillusionment at the lack of sponsorship, her hopes for the future.
Nicole has put her vision aside for now, and her focus is back on producing the results that made her queen of the road.
You can read the interview in full at Times Online.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
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