Perusing ESPN.com and found this…I’m not sure what to think about it.
LONDON — Answering a nationwide appeal for tall people with
athletic potential, more than 50 prospective Olympic athletes have been
placed in British training programs for the 2012 London Games.
More than 3,800 people applied to be part of
the “Sporting Giants” project. They were tested for their skills in
four Olympic sports — rowing, handball, beach volleyball and indoor
volleyball.
Making
the cut were 34 rowers, 11 handball players and seven volleyball
players. They have been integrated into various British Olympic
training squads.
“There are so many people out there who
don’t know how good they could be at sports they’ve probably not even
thought about,” UK Sport talent identification manager Chelsea Warr
said Thursday. “This was a mild shake of the tree. We looked under a
few rocks and look what we found.”
Chris Gregory, a
17-year-old student who is 6-9, now is training with Britain’s
volleyball squad, having never played the sport before.
Stuart Campbell, 25, gave up his job as a personal trainer to join the British Handball Academy in Denmark.
“I had never even seen a handball court before Sporting Giants,” Campbell
said. “But we’re not just here to make up the numbers — we’re here to
win medals.”
Frances Nicholls, 23, who had been working as
a teacher in York, has now relocated to Henley, home of Britain’s most
famous rowing regatta, after being fast-tracked onto Britain’s national
rowing program.
“It’s been an absolute whirlwind,” Nicholls said.
Male candidates had to be taller than 6-3, while female candidates needed to be taller than 5-11.
However, six candidates who exaggerated their height on the initial application
form were still tested and have since been placed in Britain’s canoeing
squad.
Five-time Olympic rowing champion Steve Redgrave
said looking for potential medal-winners based on their physical
attributes was a policy that had served Britain well before.
“I never thought I would row until my first coach came along and asked me
to have a go,” Redgrave said. “Years later I asked him ‘Why did you
pick me?’
“He said, ‘Well, you had big hands and big feet.”
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
