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I’m setting myself a blogging challenge. Write something that’s blog-worthy and Landor-relevant but really just an excuse to talk about Great Britain’s (GB) extraordinary achievement in the Olympics. Our The final tally, for those who weren’t keeping track, was 19 gold, 13 silver, and 15 bronze, placing Great Britain fourth in the medals table. 

How extraordinary is that? Dubbed “The Great Haul of China” by the British press, it’s the best that GB has done since 1908 and is way, way better than anything in recent years. The low point was the 1996 Atlanta Games where Britain was 36th in the medals table and only won one gold medal, putting it in the company of such Olympic powerhouses as Belarus, Armenia, and Burundi.

It’s a remarkable turnaround, and as I was reading some of the articles about this (and here’s the relevant bit), it seemed to me that this challenge and the way GB approached it has lessons with broader application:

1) Darkest days: Sometimes it takes total collapse to force organizations to make tough changes. So it was with GB’s Olympic program. The beginning of GB’s turnaround started from its darkest hour in Atlanta with a thorough examination by the sports federations into what had gone wrong and what could be done about it.

2) Imitation: Back in 1976, Australia had its own Olympics debacle and developed its own revival plan that was a huge success. The British studied this success and copied elements of it, including setting up a new government agency—U.K. Sport—to coordinate the allocation of funds.

3) Focus: One of the key conclusions from looking at what was wrong and what others were doing right was that it would be more productive to focus resources on potential medal winners rather than spreading the limited amount of money available on everyone. Such an elitist approach was a break from the traditional way Britain had approached sports, but the “Atlanta-disasta” helped force through this change.

4) Early wins: The early implementation of a more focused approach brought some success. In the Sydney and Athens games, the British team made headway and started moving back up the table to around 10th, the position that GB had usually held.

5) Commitment: When London won the right to stage the 2012 Olympics, the ante was upped considerably. Suddenly the Olympics was the center of attention and the top of everyone’s mind.

6) Stretch goals: Soon after, the British Olympic Association (BOA) set a stretch goal to finish fourth at the London Games. Some criticized the BOA for being so aggressive and setting itself up for failure. But, in fact, GB has already achieved this goal—four years early. 

7) Funding: The prospect of staging the 2012 Games opened the funding spigots and the government increased support. Clearly this extra money has been important. It has provided equipment and facilities that British athletes have never had before. But without the earlier creation of U.K. Sport and the development of an operating framework, this could have been an unfortunate example of throwing money at a problem without fixing it.

8) Opportunity identification: As part of its effort to focus, Britain has concentrated its investment in sports where there’s no dominant player (but still lots of medals available). One of the main beneficiaries has been British cycling. Matt Slater, writing for BBC Sport, describes British Cycling as being so cash-strapped in the 90s that cyclists had to borrow tracksuits and pay their own way to international events. Only ten years later, GB has become the top cycling nation, winning 14 medals in Beijing. 

9) A winning system: Back in 1992, Chris Boardman won Britain’s first cycling gold medal since 1920. But this was a one-off hit and not a signal of a cycling renaissance. His trainer, Peter Keen, talking to Matt Slater, said the approach back then was: “Classic British alpinism...leave no ropes, leave no trail. There was no system so there was no legacy.” Keen implemented a system, setting goals and creating a “leaner, meaner machine,” based both on focusing on the best prospects and establishing a process that could be replicated over and over.

10) Centers of excellence: All the elite British cycling athletes are based at one location—the Manchester velodrome. This has allowed the team to bring in the best equipment and training regimens under one roof. It’s efficient from an investment perspective and provides opportunities for the sharing of best practices and development of a strong team culture.

So now, as the Olympics heads to London (on the double decker bus featured in the Bejing closing ceremony) things have never looked brighter for British Olympic sports. Perhaps there’s time, in the next four years, for Britain to solve its weather problem as well?

Links:
1) How GB cycling went from tragic to magic: Matt Slater (BBC Sport)
2) What a weekend! But why stop there?  Matt Slater (BBC Sport Olympics Blog)