Podium

Ben Oakley is Head of Childhood, Youth and Sport at the Open University. He was a world champion competitor and then a coach at two Olympic games for the sport of windsurfing. Ben was also an academic consultant to the BBC during and in the build-up to the Olympics, including writing for the BBC Sport website.

Part I Explaining the path to the top


1 Behind the lines
2 How could I have got it so wrong?
3 Champion DNA?


Part II From child to elite athlete


4 How do champions’ paths differ?
5 From playground to podium: Playing then specialising
6 Winning parents: Getting the balance right
7 Are younger siblings more likely to become champions?
8 Selection myths and compromises revealed
9 Location, location, location: Revealing the geography of success
10 Fitness and recovery epiphanies
11 From passion to persistence, perfection and obsession: How does personality shape champions’ paths?


Part III Turning points and mental tools


12 How do critical episodes shape champions?
13 Broken bodies, broken minds?
14 What is in a champion’s mental toolbox?
15 Learning from defeat: Rhetoric or reality?
16 Confidence
17 Keeping it all together: Nerves
18 Under pressure: New approaches


Part IV The Coach


19 What I wish I’d known about Olympic coaching when I started
20 Learning from behind the lines: Coaching stories


Part V Specialist characteristics


21 Do champions think differently about pain?
22 A pothole, or worse, on the path: Depression
23 Looking back and redirecting the rocket: Retirement