One Year until Paris is time for good energy: Bradley McGee

Olympic gold medallist, and proud New South Wales Institute of Sport employee, Bradley McGee noted the significance of today’s One Year to Go milestone date until the opening of the 2024 Paris Games by conceding the vibe he and his fellow staff members bring to the Institute over the next 12 months will be crucial to each athlete’s individual campaign.

McGee, who won a total of five medals from his four Olympic campaigns which included Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, and Beijing, and who was a long-term NSWIS scholarship athlete, insisted the “energy” each staff member brought to work from now until the Paris Games would have an impact.

“I’m sure there is evidence around this, but it’s my experienced gut feel that the energy you bring into an environment is felt by everyone else,” said McGee, who is a highly respected High Performance Coach Advisor, and pictured on the far right of the photograph above.

“And while the positivity, commitment and energy at NSWIS is already high volume, I’d use today to implore anyone who is working in the vicinity of an athlete to check yourself and ask where’s your energy? Is it contributing or detracting from that person?

“My advice is to be positive; be a part of [the athlete’s journey]. Even if you’re not getting on that plane yourself, there’s no reason why you can’t feel a ‘belonging’ to their journey and achievement.”

McGee, who started riding as a 12-year-old at the Merrylands track in Sydney’s western suburbs, credited NSWIS for playing a key role in his becoming Australia’s most decorated male Olympic cyclist through his efforts to seize a gold and a silver (Athens), and three bronze (Atlanta and Sydney) medals.

“NSWIS was like my base camp,” McGee said of his days as a scholarship athlete. “I’d come back [from competing professionally in Europe] and I’d always connect with key personnel at NSWIS to help me unpack what may have just happened [in a race or campaign] to prepare me for the next bit.

“Later on in my career I’d come back to NSWIS be ‘physically restructured’ through some heavy S&C ‘rehab’. So, that’s why I considered NSWIS to be my base camp and, to continue with the analogy, to climb Mount Everest every year because even though you were going into that unknown zone, you went into it with confidence.”

McGee said based on his own experience, the athletes who were preparing to compete in Paris would use the milestone to focus their entire energies on their campaigns.

“For the athletes today will be a feeling of ‘all right, let’s put our pens down’,” he said. “They’ll think of all those other things that are going on in life – of which there are many for all of regardless of whether you’re an athlete or coach regardless –   and if you’re ‘on’ for Paris, this is the time to bring that focus in.

“It’s not just individuals from that moment on – it’s also their partners, family, loved ones and friends. It’s a moment for everyone to reflect and realise ‘this thing is happening, and it is coming real soon.’ That means it’s time to let some things go, because the reality is that’s what it takes to perform at the Olympics.”

McGee said the reality for the athletes was everything they did now – including the meals they eat, their hours of sleep, training, rehabilitation – would take even greater importance.

“It becomes machine-like,” he said. “I’d dare say for any athlete on the trajectory to compete at Paris, the bulk of their planning would have been done a long while ago. Now, it’s a matter of acting it out.

“What happens for an athlete now is they maximize the potential to perform at their best. You have to keep at it and let nothing get in your way – and that can be hard – but when I look back on my career, I was so tunnel visioned I wasn’t aware of such things as world politics or major news stories . . . and, unfortunately, even what was going on in my own extended family.

“But I think that’s what it takes, and you need the support of those around you to realise ‘yes, this is happening.’ Over time I recognised the power of that [mindset] on the other side of an [Olympic or elite campaign] when you really steeled yourself to perform for yourself, your teammates, and your nation.

“It’s a moment in time when you do need to be a bit selfish, but the power that gives you pays big dividends. And while it is a tough time for the athlete, I realise it’s even more so for those around them. “

As a revered figure in Australian cycling’s proud cycling history McGee said whenever he reflected upon the commitment he invested in an Olympic campaign or a Tour de France, it gives him an even deeper appreciation for the support his wife Sharni provided him.

 “As a young athlete and then a young coach, that’s what it took, and that what was needed” he said. “Sharni made so many sacrifices, and it really hits you when you think about them.”

McGee said the reward of being able to wear the title ‘Olympian’ for the rest of their lives should be so strong it will drive athletes to give everything they have – and then some more – to make the team.

“I was absolutely blessed to have that opportunity,” he said of becoming an Olympian. “If you’re an athlete and your sport is part of the Olympic program, I’d suggest . . . if you have even the slightest sliver of hope to get there, well, storm in!

“It is the ultimate.”

Daniel Lane, NSWIS