Pieter Laroy’s Post

What it takes to win Gold Medal. The anamnesis of Paris 2024 Olympic games is a near time memory that will stay with many of us, back dropping all its reminiscences. As many agree the major objectives of Olympic games is enhancement and promoting international unity, in addition to sporting activities and and cultural exchange between nations. On the other hand it is also a platform where athletes show the pride of their nations through love, loyalty and devotion to their country. That could be seen and felt when the flags and emblems of winning nation's athletes is raised in international arena. The medals provided to the winners ranking from first to the third, carries so much meaning with it, when viewed from differing perspectives. First it is the result of physical, mental and psychological effort the group or an individual competitor exerted or embodied to the race. Second, it is the level of mind set , commitment and preparedness the contestant corresponded to the race. I had two of my favourite athletes on this game, and tried to speculate what major traits helped them to be successful and win gold medal. The first athlete of my preference was fellow country man, Tamirat Tola, who won gold medal of Paris Olympic 2024, men's marathon race, in setting new record of the place. The second athlete of my choice was Pauline Ferrand-Privot of france, who won gold medal in women's mountain bike race of Paris Olympic 2024. Apart from physical, mental, and psychological readiness, I feel there are some important behavioral characteristics of those people, which could be drawn as a lesson, from both outstanding athletes, that will help anyone emerge victorious. Focus- The level of attention and concentration those athletes paid to the task at hand was exalted. To my understanding their vision, auditory and all other senses and perceptions were concentrated and directed towards the achievement of goal without any distraction. Flexibility - I observed both people were flexible and adaptive to the changing situation. Pauline was great at keeping in tandem with the process of cycling up and down the terrain , while Tamirat was also perfect in matching with changing landscape and weather situation different from his native land. Endurance- The staying power, stamina and hope depicted within these people, in the face of challenge and jeopardy, was everlasting and helped them succeed. What any other lessons can we draw from this event?

Athletes Won’t Fall From Heaven: Four (yes, a measly four) is the lowest number of athletes independent Namibia has ever seen qualify for the Olympic Games. The decline was inevitable but it can get worse. The last Olympics was phenomenal, with the exciting emergence of young sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, giving hope we would see a new golden generation of athletes last witnessed with the likes of Frank Fredericks and Hilalia Johannes. Their glory had nothing to do with the authorities. The country has seemingly not learnt from the cycling federation, which has at least been consistent in sending sport stars to the Olympics. Of Namibia’s four participants this year, two are cyclists – Alex Miller and Vera Looser. The stand-out failure that resulted in Namibia having four athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics includes lack of planning, non-existent facilities, maladministration/mismanagement and seemingly corrupt tendencies. Every year and for every major competition, Namibia seems to hope athletes will fall out of the sky like manna from heaven. Cycling is not only well run, but seemingly attracts enough decent money to send sport stars to major competitions worldwide. The story of football, which attracts major sponsorship, is well known. Netball does well internationally without even one suitable indoor world-class facility. Cricket and rugby keep moving. Independence Stadium had a tartan surface built before independence which is now broken to pieces. A similar tartan track and field facility built at Oshakati after independence did not last 20 years. Paralympics administrators are fighting each other with accusations of abusing money meant for athletes and sport infrastructure. So far this year, the Paralympic committee has blown N$300 000 on board meetings, using up N$200 000 in prize money our athletes won at competitions last year, plus more than N$150 000 meant to prepare them for participation. Sport has proven value for any society: Nowadays, it is also among the biggest job creation industries, requiring low investment with high returns for the stars at the very top. Apart from bringing people together, sport promotes healthy living and makes for productive societies. Hence the frustration that our government has not bothered to build and maintain facilities that would benefit the majority of our people. Then we have self-serving individuals in leadership positions of organisations like the Namibia National Olympic Committee, Namibia National Paralympic Committee and Namibia Football Association. Many have remained in those positions way past any usefulness they may have had, apparently happy to collect money for salaries, workshops and travel without a concomitant development of the athletes. Against all odds, Johannes qualified for the 2024 Olympics for a remarkable and record-setting fifth time. Instead of the accidental…

Sports clarify the truths—especially the competitive truths—of being human. That’s why the Olympics are irresistible. In microcosm, within bounded place & time, people do what we do at work, teaming with comrades to reach goals while powerful opponents try to thwart us. Even better, all the #people in the Olympics are practically superhuman. Who wouldn’t want to study the lessons we can distill from this spectacle? So—4 #business lessons from the Olympics: 1•The 98th percentile isn’t good enough. Companies love to claim their products, services, & competencies are world class, but are they really? The #Paris Olympics demonstrate how staggeringly difficult it is to be among the world’s very best. Consider swimming. In the men’s 400-meter freestyle, Germany’s Lukas Martens won the gold with a time of 3:41.78. South Korea’s Kim Woo-Min took the bronze with 3:42.50. The difference between gold medal & no medal was 0.3%. Many business #leaders are claiming their companies will “bring home the gold” this year. That’s great, but remember that many excellent competitors went to the Paris Olympics & were 98% or 99% as good as the best—& brought home nothing. By all means try to bring home the gold, but don’t delude yourself about how hard it is. 2•Standards keep rising In the 1896 Olympics, a Greek runner named Spyridon Louis won the marathon with a time of 2:58:50 (two hours 58 minutes 50 seconds). Today that would be a ho-hum time at a high #school track meet; the current high school record is 2:22:51. After the 1908 Olympics, “officials almost prohibited the double somersault in dives because they believed these dives were dangerous, & no human would ever be able to control them,” said human #performance authority Anders Ericsson. Today Olympic divers rarely do a double somersault because it’s too easy. In Paris the preeminent standard-raiser now is Simone Biles, who led the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to a gold medal & won the individual all-around gold in part by doing moves that no one else in the world can do. There’s no telling how long it will take competitors to catch up. The analogy to business is obvious, but that doesn’t stop business leaders from ignoring it. Microsoft ridiculed Apple’s iPhone because it introduced a touchscreen rather than a keyboard; #Microsoft’s own phone business crashed & burned. Myspace predated Meta's Facebook but didn’t keep up with #Facebook’s innovations. Kodak pioneered #digital #photography but couldn’t foresee its eventual dominance. #Advertising #Analytics #Banking #BestAdvice #BigData #BusinessIntelligence #Career #Commerce #Consultants #ConsumerBehavior #Data #DataMining #DataScience #Design #eCommerce #Economics #Economy #Education #Europe #ExecutivesAndManagement #Finance #Finances #Hr #HumanResource #HumanResources #Innovation #Investing #Jobs #JobSeekers #Law #Leadership #Markets #Money #Productivity #RiskManagement #Sales #SmallBusiness #SocialMedia #Strategy #Success #Sustainability #Technology

The Long Road to Namibian Olympic Success: The 2024 Summer Olympics taking place in Paris will remind many of us of the stellar performance of our athletes, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, in the Tokyo Olympics. Let’s go back to that joyful day. Mboma and Masilingi were in lanes five and eight of the Olympic 200 metres final. They were running their first Olympic final and were competing against outstanding and experienced athletes – including Elaine Thompson-Herah from Jamaica and Gabrielle Thomas from the US, both favoured to win medals. Bang. The starting pistol was fired; 21 seconds later the then 18-year-old Christine Mboma had her first Olympic medal. Silver! She came in just behind Thomson-Herah but ahead of Thomas. Beatrice Masilingi achieved an amazing sixth place. Remarkable achievements for two Namibian athletes who had not had access to the type of resources and training support available to athletes from wealthier countries. ELITE SPORT AND FAIRNESS Which brings me to my point. At first glance, Olympic sport events appear fair. But is this really the case? Do all contestants have the same chance of winning that gold medal? Recently I was interviewed by a Dutch journalist about fairness in achieving Olympic success. He wanted to understand more about the elite sport climate in Namibia compared to countries such as the Netherlands. I explained the inequality to him using the examples of Mboma and Masilingi. The road to competing in that 200m Olympic final for our Namibian athletes was not the same as the road followed by fellow competitors. Our Namibian heroes did not have the benefit of being embedded in the type of ‘sprint culture’ that Thomson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price and other Jamaicans know. They did not benefit from the sport tradition prevalent at American universities as Gabrielle Thomas did. Some years ago, I was fortunate to be part of an international study on Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success. The study was led by renowned Dutch sport researcher Maarten van Bottenburg and investigated elite sport success. It identified pillars important in building an elite sport climate in which athletes can excel. These include financial support; organisation and structure of sport policies; a foundation of sport participation, performance and excellence; training facilities; coaching; opportunities for international competition and research. Van Bottenburg concluded that: “In sport everybody has equal chances, but the opportunities to grab these chances are not equally divided. About 50% of the division of the Olympic medals is depending on the wealth of the country and the population size.” He added that: “It is very easy: ‘More money in, more medals out’. The more investment in elite sport, the more medals a country can earn.” IDENTITY AND SELF-ESTEEM Because of this,…

Every Olympic Athlete Deserves Recognition: Each Olympic cycle brings media attention to a select few ‘celebrity’ Olympic athletes while many others may be left standing in the shadows thinking “so what, I’m just chopped liver?”  In the current 2024 Olympic Games, a few rowers are getting an outsized attention because they are “out.”    There are other media articles extolling the huge number of out athletes in the 2024 cycle.  Even more articles suggest that one “out” athlete on the team was responsible for bringing home gold for his/her team. Presumably, we should give those athletes more recognition and admiration.  Hmmm, we are confused.  If it is a team event, doesn’t that require the participation and talent of all the team members? The reality is that every rower who is at the 2024 Olympics deserves our utmost respect and admiration for the huge personal sacrifice he/she has made in their career, in their personal lives, in their ability to achieve homeownership, and in their financial and savings goals.  We haven’t even discussed the hours and hours of training and physical preparation, and just as important, the mental toll it takes on every athlete to keep going day in and day out, especially when it doesn’t seem like they are making much progress in their skill or their erg or race times. From the perspective of the rowing community, every rower has had to be on the water two or three times a day for months, and that isn’t in beautiful cool weather with mirror like water.  Then there are the brutal erg sessions that leave you heaving on the floor, and then there’s the weight room.  We can’t begin to scratch the surface at what is involved in training for Olympic selection and then afterwards, the intense final stretch in preparation for the Olympics. For the 2024 Olympics, rowing has entries from 65 countries and one AIN.  The total number of entries, male and female, comes to 492.  That number doesn’t take into account the team alternates that some countries can afford (in manpower and cost).   These alternates have had to train just as hard and even more difficult, they have to watch on the sidelines while their teammates are in the boats. In the 1990’s, a common statistical measure was that ten percent of the population is gay.  Now, new demographic statistical data indicates that 1.2 to 6.8 percent of the population is LGBTQ.  It is our perception that the percent of LGBTQ athletes in rowing is much higher, closer to 15 percent.  Why? Rowing is a non-contact sport where everyone sits in a separate seat but works as a team to add speed to the boat.  This makes an attractive setting for an LGBTQ youth or adult who perhaps feels more comfortable competing in isolation. If you add a comfortable and conservative estimate of 20 alternate athletes, the total number of rowers at the 2024 Olympics comes to 512.  If only 5 percent of those athletes are… http://dlvr.it/TBQQLz

The Long Road to Namibian Olympic Success: The 2024 Summer Olympics taking place in Paris will remind most of us of the stellar performance of our athletes, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, in the Tokyo Olympics. Let’s go back to that joyful day. Mboma and Masilingi were in lanes five and eight of the Olympic 200 metre final. They were running their first Olympic final and were competing against outstanding and experienced athletes – including Elaine Thompson-Herah from Jamaica and Gabrielle Thomas from the US, both favoured to win medals. Bang. The starting pistol was fired; 21 seconds later the then 18-year-old Christine Mboma had her first Olympic medal. Silver! She came in just behind Thomson-Herah but ahead of Thomas. Beatrice Masilingi achieved an amazing sixth place. Remarkable achievements for two Namibian athletes who had not had access to the type of resources and training support available to athletes from wealthier countries. ELITE SPORT AND FAIRNESS Which brings me to my point. At first glance, Olympic sport events appear fair. But is this really the case? Do all contestants have the same chance of winning that gold medal? Recently I was interviewed by a Dutch journalist about fairness in achieving Olympic success. He wanted to understand more about the elite sports climate in Namibia compared to countries such as the Netherlands. I explained the inequality to him using the examples of Mboma and Masilingi. The road to competing in that 200m Olympic final for our Namibian athletes was not the same as the road followed by their competitors. Our local heroes did not have the benefit of being embedded in the type of ‘sprint culture’ that Thomson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price and other Jamaicans know. They did not benefit from the sports tradition prevalent at American universities as Gabrielle Thomas did. Some years ago, I was fortunate to be part of an international study on Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success. The study was led by renowned Dutch sport researcher Maarten van Bottenburg and investigated elite sport success. It identified pillars important in building an elite sport climate in which athletes can excel. These include financial support; organisation and structure of sport policies; a foundation of sport participation, performance, and excellence; training facilities; coaching; opportunities for international competition; and research. Van Bottenburg concluded that: “In sport everybody has equal chances but the opportunities to grab these chances are not equally divided. About 50% of the division of the Olympic medals is depending on the wealth of the country and the population size.” He added that: “It is very easy: ‘More money in, more medals out’. The more investment in elite sport, the more medals a country can earn.” IDENTITY AND SELF-ESTEEM Because of this,…

The Long Road to Namibian Olympic Success: The 2024 Summer Olympics taking place in Paris will remind most of us of the stellar performance of our athletes, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, in the Tokyo Olympics. Let’s go back to that joyful day.  Mboma and Masilingi were in lanes five and eight of the Olympic 200 metre final.  They were running their first Olympic final and were competing against outstanding and experienced athletes – including Elaine Thompson-Herah from Jamaica and Gabrielle Thomas from the US, both favoured to win medals.  Bang. The starting pistol was fired; 21 seconds later the then 18-year-old Christine Mboma had her first Olympic medal. Silver! She came in just behind Thomson-Herah but ahead of Thomas. Beatrice Masilingi achieved an amazing sixth place.  Remarkable achievements for two Namibian athletes who had not had access to the type of resources and training support available to athletes from wealthier countries. ELITE SPORT AND FAIRNESS Which brings me to my point.  At first glance, Olympic sport events appear fair. But is this really the case?  Do all contestants have the same chance of winning that gold medal? Recently I was interviewed by a Dutch journalist about fairness in achieving Olympic success.  He wanted to understand more about the elite sports climate in Namibia compared to countries such as the Netherlands.  I explained the inequality to him using the examples of Mboma and Masilingi.  The road to competing in that 200m Olympic final for our Namibian athletes was not the same as the road followed by their competitors.  Our local heroes did not have the benefit of being embedded in the type of ‘sprint culture’ that Thomson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price and other Jamaicans know.  They did not benefit from the sports tradition prevalent at American universities as Gabrielle Thomas did. Some years ago, I was fortunate to be part of an international study on Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success.  The study was led by renowned Dutch sport researcher Maarten van Bottenburg and investigated elite sport success.  It identified pillars important in building an elite sport climate in which athletes can excel.  These include financial support; organisation and structure of sport policies; a foundation of sport participation, performance, and excellence; training facilities; coaching; opportunities for international competition; and research. Van Bottenburg concluded that: “In sport everybody has equal chances but the opportunities to grab these chances are not equally divided. About 50% of the division of the Olympic medals is depending on the wealth of the country and the population size.”  He added that: “It is very easy: ‘More money in, more medals out’. The more investment in elite sport, the more medals a country can earn.” IDENTITY AND SELF-ESTEEM Because…

PARIS OLYMPICS 2024 ** We often speak of inspiring tales, the impact of change, and so on. As the Olypmpics kick off, let’s take a moment to look through some key moments - stories of inspiration, grit, sacrifice, change, and even disappointment on some fronts. ** - First with the basics; the logo. The main Olympic symbol represents five intertwined rings, and was proposed by frenchman Pierre de Coubertin in 2013, when he initiated the modern Olympic games. It represents five continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world. Each colour represented a continent; though that was later changed so now there’s no specific colour for a continent. This year, over 11,000 athletes from c.200 nations have gathered to take part in 32 sports, aiming for gold, silver, and bronze! - Speaking of sacrifices, it’s not just the athletes, but also their teams, their families who persevere with them. As examples, I see a note from Geeta Devi, the mother of Indian archer, Deepika Kumari, that the archer’s newborn was just a week old when she began preparing for her fourth Olympic. Then there’s P. V Ramana, father of P. V Sindhu, Indian badminton player. In an interview explaining what it took to raise an Olympian, he speaks of waking up at 3 am to drop her to the station from where she’d travel another 120kms. - Speaking of risk taking, we have the superstar scrum - Antoine Dupont, who having pivoted from his 15-a-side ranks, to the sevens format, and skipped the Six Nations to prioritise the nation’s bid or a seven-a-side goal on home soil. - Touching upon disappointments, not all is upbeat as there’s furore about India’s Olympic outfit, as celebrities and others come out to criticise Tarun Tahiliani’s design for the Indians, calling it a ‘disrace to India’s rich weaving culture.’ - Which brings me on to one final point; how things are changing? I read an article in The Economist titled, ‘A Shift in the Media Business Is Changing What It Means To Be a Sports Fan.’ The article explains that with the advent of social media, fans are getting to know more about individual players, as in the ‘face’ behind the ‘helmet,’ and on the flip side, the younger generation is sometimes more interested in ‘following’ the game as opposed to ‘watching’ the sport. That said, with Netflix, Prime, even ESPN (through Disney Plus) getting into streaming, there’s hope that we’ll get closer to the Olympic dream of truly global interest, as cable can sometimes be limiting. #olympics #parisolympics #france #india #socialmedia #change #inspiration #sports #rugby #games #television #streaming #stories

Today's the day - Paris 2024 Olympics Ceremony Day! We're celebrating with someone who's been there - Olympian Roy Burch competed in the pool at both the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and 2012 in London for his beautiful home country of Bermuda.   toth shop (ts): Over the course of your lifetime, what's been your relationship with athletics, sport, "training", etc.? Roy Burch (RB): "My earliest memories are either doing something athletic, training, or competing. I still train, do athletic activities, and compete occasionally. I love the deep concentration it takes to be an athlete, train, and compete against others. It allows one to be deliberate and live in the moment. It's an immersive experience where you find yourself in the center of the action." ts: In the scheme of the work you do, how does an athletic mindset come up or present itself? RB: "It took some time to transcend the athletic mindset and understand how the skillset applied to a ‘traditional job’. To keep it simple - discipline, consistency, perseverance, grit, receiving constructive criticism, showing up when it matters, handling disappointment and responding to failure are all a part of the athlete's repertoire. At the end of the day I know how to work; in today's climate, the majority of people can be outworked." ts: What does it mean to you to be an "athlete" in your work?   RB: "I love being athletic so sitting at a desk can be a challenge. Mental preparation techniques help me align with what needs to be done. When my day job is complete, I take the time to move despite emotion. It’s important to do something for myself each day and my movement routine is at the foundation of my everyday life." ts: What do you wish the business world knew more or appreciated more about athleticism and work? RB: "Business and athletics are very similar. Both can move you through a wide range of experiences and emotions. One’s responsibility lies in how they work through the challenges. Anyone who has competed in anything or been anywhere has met someone who underperforms and has also met or seen high performers. Most of the underperformers I’ve met were not due to extraneous circumstances. Typically, it was because they didn’t respond well to failure and had a high time preference for performance/results. High performers know it takes time to build, and they perform well because their mind is set in that direction. A failure isn’t necessarily a failure but just another learning experience in the journey. Many may not understand that you are tethered to the sport. It dictates so much of your life. Most of the year is spent training harder and harder to peak and compete. You have minimal off time through the season because if you let up for too long, you fall behind. The athlete must be willing to give everything to their craft. To some that may be a sacrifice, but, to us, it’s the price!"