Posted on: 18 March 2007 by JWM
No, not Soviet (in the sense that young talent under that regime was frequently compelled 'for the glory of the motherland'), but certainly one way of identifying latent young British talent.
Redgrave himself speaks of a teacher who encouraged one unlikely, gangly, big-footed youth to go rowing - who ended up with Golds in five consecutive Olympic Games...!
At my old university - minor in terms of the rowing circuit - we did try to improve things with the tactic of appealing to people who were already reasonably good at one sport (established baseline fitness and hand/eye coordination) and who had a suitable physique (tallish with good 'levers') with the 'carrot': 'Would you like to compete at a world-renowned sporting event within a year or two?' (i.e. Henley Royal Regatta).
This has had some success at the level at which it was pitched - in that a crew from Sheffield University has competed at Henley for many of the last 20 or so years.
In UK rowing there have been more than a negligible number of people who, say, started rowing as novices when they went up to Oxford and Cambridge, and ended up rowing in, and sometimes even winning the Boat Race, and who have gone on to rowing in the GB Squad.
And when they started, they began by simply 'going out for a paddle' in a college novices' boat, probably never expecting in a month of Sundays to get to such dizzy heights.
There will be other young people with encouraging physique and temperament who do not have the opportunity to do that. Perhaps this is another way of opening up to young people much greater opportunity for Olympic (for a few), international (for some) and national (for many) level sports.
Perhaps the scheme has most potential with regard to talented individuals who do not happen to be in recognised 'sporty' schools.
So, in fact, could this not be a positive step in the 'democratisation of sport' (not that the Soviets were ever democratic...) - in areas other than the ubiquitous soccer...?
James
