Weight is heavy on young shoulders...
Twell - will she handle the pressure?
We are very good at placing pressure on sports people. We want success, we want our runners, footballers, cricketers and cyclists to win. We expect. But it doesn’t always happen quite like that. With 2012 just around the erm, corner, we are already taking about medal hauls and the ‘most likely to’ – and why not, there is only 4 years to go after all!
In a world where the pressures of growing up are tough enough, the extra pressure we place on our youngsters is becoming greater and greater. SATs, GCSE’s, too fat, too thin. If individuals were given the time to ‘develop’ and were guided, instead of being forced down a route or into a position of expectation, would we produce better, more rounded individuals or are we setting them up for failure and ‘under-achievement’? Take Paula Radcliffe. She didnt hit the really big time until she was 27. Sure, Britain expected, hoped, but given the time she developed from the nearly girl to the it girl.
So, where am I going with this? Well, MST, similar to every website and mag over the last 6-12 months has championed great European hope Steph Twell. We think she can be the next Paula. So, for that matter, do some of the UK’s top ex-athletes. In an interesting article in the London Guardian both Brendan Foster and Liz McColgan think she has what it takes – and they should know. They do offer tempered words and agree that Twell needs to mature, but state that she has the ingredients to become a world-class athlete. With Foster stating “The thing that strikes me about Steph is that she looks powerful and strong.”
Bren and Liz have been there, done that...
As the Aldershot runner lines up against some of the best cross country runners in the world this weekend it will interesting to see if she continues to live up to those hopes and expectations.
Come on Steph, Britain expects!
