Athlete Development - The "Where"

We all know about Canadian hockey, New Zealand rugby, English soccer, and East African running in elite sports. How relevant is it for your sporting success to be in the right place? Or reverse that question and ask if you are born in the wrong place, how extremely slim are your chances at success? If you are born in Kenya, there is a slight chance you will become a professional hockey player unless immigration is an option. Sports Scientists call these "Accidents of longitude and latitude ." emphasizing culture when exposed to a sport.

There is a fantastic book called "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coile, which explains the emphasis on culture and how it changes the mindset on the sport. He says, "Imagine traveling down a road in a car and looking through the window, and what you see determines where you go." 

So if an athlete is born in Canada, what is in his windshield? Probably Hockey. If someone is born in Kenya, or more specifically, St.Patricks High School in Iten, Kenya, which has produced more Olympic athletes than any other high school globally, the windshield is full of Olympic runners. There is a great article written in 2008 by Runner's World Magazine on St.Patricks High School. Therefore what would be their aspiration? Olympic athlete. Where you are born determines what is in your windshield geographically. Consequently, you can and can't do it quickly. 

Geographics can also play a part in physiology to an extent. According to "The Telegraph," November 2019, Indonesia has the shortest people on average in the world at an average height of 1.58m tall. However, that doesn't necessarily mean out of 100,000 people come up with athletes who fit the physiological profile of a 6 "4 100kg world-class rugby player. But the problem is that these odds are 1 out of 1000 people. Whereas New Zealand or South Africa, it would be 1 and 50. As we build our sports teams all over the world at a junior or senior level, we ask, "how likely is it to find a person who offers the physiological attributes necessary for my sport?" In Kenya, to be an excellent long-distance runner, you need legs, lungs, and a heart with a decent metabolism. The body shape, of course, is a massive factor. Also, long tendons and muscles make up successful runners. Not to say there aren't Canadians, Italians, or Columbians that fit these qualifications. However, this is far less common than in Kenya—living on the equator and at altitude developed their physiology over thousands of years. Therefore as a function of probability, on average, 30/100 are reliable athletes. Compare that to the likelihood of Italian or Columbian nationality, and that number drops to 2/100. It is indicating that you have a massive head start if you're born in Kenya. It adds culture, lifestyle, social-economic incentives to make money into a career, community, and intellectual capital, which has developed over decades of doing well in the sport. Now the gap between Canada and Kenya has jumped to an even more significant difference.

The interaction of genes gives you the hardware that sets your ceiling effectively. Meaning your genetics is your ticket through the door. If you don't have specific genetic attributes in your sport, there is a much lower chance of getting in. More Kenyons have the ticket for running, Canadians with Hockey, Australians with Cricket, New Zealand with Rugby, Russia with Bandy, or Brazilians with Volleyball. The room is much larger, and the opportunities to succeed are that much higher.

A great way to see these cultures in action is to watch the Olympics and keep track of which countries dominate in individual events. In sailing, there are very few if any developing countries are competing and winning due to the high price tag of racing equipment. South American countries do not dominate in Skiing or Luge due to the lack of appropriate climate. Being lucky is a variable that outways talent. Except for soccer and running, the barriers to entry into the sport are almost zero. They are allowing more countries globally to compete at a high level: opportunity and environment matter.

The discussion of what region you're born in plays a part and follows a similar logic. What does it take to be a champion? I would say opportunity and exposure to the right environment. There aren't many studies regarding the size of the city you're born in, affecting development. Sports Scientist Ross Tucker says, "The size of the city you grow up in, in large part determines opportunity." He says, "Imagine a child born in Manhattan amongst millions of people and being able to choose any sport he or she wants to play. Facilities are not an issue; money (probably) isn't a major issue that gives a head start, but the problem is that there are even more distractions for every opportunity. He or she is one of 100,000; therefore, unless he/she gets lucky at the right time with the right people, they will disappear into a big pond." On the other end of the spectrum, you have villages and outlying communities where maybe you don't have facilities. Meaning if you don't have the facilities to play tennis, you're not becoming a tennis player. Somewhere between these two extremes lays a sweet spot that has facilities, Opportunities, and minimal distraction. 

An article published by The Wall Street Journal, in the top American sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA), the probability of becoming an elite athlete is about 15 times higher if you live in a city between 50-100,000 people, which is relatively small by some standards. Small-town kids tend to emerge from this game of musical chairs; around 10/100,000 come out as professional athletes. The town is large enough to accommodate facilities, space, and safety to express that, wherein large downtown areas might not have these luxuries. The luxury of space and time provides an opportunity for facilities to operate with enough support. Besides, you most likely learn in a smaller school where kids can get more attention. Whereas in Manhattan, you most likely would need to be exceptional to reach that level of awareness. The result is over-representation from smaller towns. This becomes accurate in Canada as where you're much more likely to be spotted when you are a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a massive lake. 

In smaller towns, you get an organic system developing on its own. In a vast city, unless someone actively goes into the city with resources and money to find and develop young athletes, we rely on a fair bit of luck when measuring the curve of success within a big city. More likely than not, you'll tend to lose kids when finding them. The cream will rise to the top by allowing opportunity, as opposed to the big cities, distractions drown out the cream. 

Promoting local clubs through social media outlets and allowing frequent engagement between the parents and athletes, the facilities will grow and retain current attendance. For athletes that wish to participate, there is some level of immigration from city to city or country to country.  

Still, these advantages are not as significant as the people's attitudes, such as Norway's people where local ski slopes aren't as helpful unless you have an organization that encourages all kids to enjoy skiing as a fun and stimulating activity.  

Making these facilities with the sport or activity inside them fun and approachable makes the future experience enjoyable. Allow athletes to compete with kids their age and talent level while allowing more personalized attention on growth and enjoyment. No matter how old you are, no matter how tall or strong you are, we play sports and compete for joy and passion. 

Recognizing new ways to build facilities with design and function in mind remains a growing struggle for some places. They are creating more efficient housing structures in northern and southern climates. Renewable energy techniques will improve, allowing the cost of these sources to decrease. Many national and city governments, such as Sweden, Norway, and Finland, see the value of subsidizing renewable energy costs for sporting facilities.  

By comparison, few Canadian cities develop local winter facilities. Their emphasis is still on golf courses and green spaces for summer use. Cross-country skiing courses are maintained in areas of the more popular provincial and national parks. Edmonton's cities are now providing free snowboard and ski lessons in some river valley locations to encourage more people to use the outdoors in the winter. Competitive winter games have been developing in countries and regions with long winters to encourage more participation in a range of winter sports. On a world scale, the Winter Olympics has moved from a critical elite Alpine event to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, with participants from countries as a worldwide televised audience. Every four years, the Winter Olympics has moved to a different location to popularize winter sports. The winner of the bid to host an Olympics now has a massively increased number of quality facilities for thousands of athletes. They allow those buildings to remain in use after more novice and experienced enthusiasts explore new opportunities becoming a permanent legacy. The opportunity presents itself to watch these events and showcase athletes, and boosts tourism potential. For example, Calgary hosted the 15th Winter Olympics in 1988 after spending around $25 million (CND) to promote its bid. The organization committee spent $98 million on new ice hockey. It figured skating rinks, ski-jumping, and luge run, and $103 million for an athlete's village in the university, which included a $40 million dome area for speed skating (amounts more funding and event construction). And since then have seen a massive spike in winter sports participation.  

Building these facilities show a positive behavioral approach to improve the quality of life, to show that winter is better coped with and celebrated, not just "put up with." Of course, the degree to which a city is affected by winter varies on its location; however, the features outlined can be reviewed and applied to places with limited cold seasons.  

We, as Canadians, still have a long way to go compared to the Nordic countries. Perhaps we prioritize our construction space with modernized retail placement in urban buildings, which have often ignored winter. However, there are signs of real change in more prominent North American centers, such as Edmonton's vision of implementing a plan for..

"Reclaiming the joy of winter in order to embrace the season that is so central to our identity."