Own The Podium a Lesson in Goal Setting  

So for my last Olympic post, I’ll address the question that is no doubt a huge debate in Canada right now. Own The Podium, success of failure.

Own The Podium was the Canadian Olympic Committees plan to prepare for the 2010 games in Vancouver. Up until 2010, Canada had the dubious distinction of being one of only 2 countries never to win a gold medal as the host nation. Own The Podium was implemented to change that. In fact the generally accepted goal of Own The Podium was not only to win the first ever gold on home soil, but to lead the medal standings. Notice how carefully I phrased that. Although that’s how the program has been depicted in the media, I couldn’t find anything on the website of OTP that stated the goal of winning more medals than any other country.

For kicks and Giggles, let’s assume that was the primary objective. Assessing the success or failure, is really a lesson in goal setting, and preparedness. Given the objective, the program was a failure, by a lot. 11 to be exact. But when you put it in context, Assessing the success or failure of OTP is much like assessing the success or failure of last years triathlon season.

Consider this analogy. Last year your goal was to win your age group in your local Olympic distance race. Come race day you placed third in your age group, with a time of just under 2 hours and 15 minutes, 10 minutes behind the age group winner. So was your season a failure? Really, you have to look at the bigger picture. Did you set a PB for that distance? How did your swim and bike splits compare with your peers? How did you place overall?

If your result was a dismal 15 minutes slower than the previous year, and 10 minutes out of first for your agegroup this year, the answer is that the season was a disappointment.

But if you set a personal best by 5 minutes, placed top 3 in your age group, as well as top 3 overall, and number 1 was a ringer from out of town who showed up out of the blue to use your local race as a tune up for an upcoming national event, then I would count that as a resounding victory.

So again I ask, Own the Podium, Success or Failure? Well given the final results, third overall behind a US team that blew even their own expectations out of the water, and given that Canada set two records, most golds by a host nation, and most golds overall in the winter games, you would have to label it a success.

For me, the beginning was disappointing, and I was as critical as anyone. But looking back, it sure was fun just to be in a position to be disappointed. Canada had medal potential in every single sport, with the exception of the Nordic events. And even then, Canadian skiers were in the hunt all the way through the team sprint, and missed the gold in the 50k by a mere 1.5 seconds. The montage at the top puts it all in perspective.

As for the lesson in goal setting, when you plan out your season, think about stating a goal that may seem out to lunch, but that is possible given the right circumstances. It may be to place in your agegroup, or set a personal best, the key is to shoot for the stars. If your PB is 2:45, and you set a very ambitious goal of breaking 2:30, and you end up 2:35, that’s still better by 10 minutes. Then you can debate Success or Failure.