Realising the Olympic dream – bring on the alchemists

Going to the Games

This paper is in three parts. First we set out some of the dreams of some London 2012 Olympic medal hopefuls. We call it, ‘Daring to dream’. Second, we discuss some of the important factors that can help or hinder the realization of Olympic dreams. Finally we focus exclusively on coaches of elite athletes and use the metaphor of the ‘coach-as-alchemist’ to describe and explain some of the major themes, concepts and ideas we have learned in constructing this Special (Para)Olympic Issue of Reflective Practice.

Keywords:

• Olympics
• realising dreams
• sports coaching
• coaching the elite
• high performance