Classic stuff:
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*If something tastes bad, I usually assume it is healthy and I like eating healthy food. I try to get about 75% of my daily calories from ‘real nutritious food’ and the rest is usually a combination of sports drinks, bars, chocolate, donuts and coffee. I like ice cream when it is in a cone but my favorite is donuts and coffee together before a bike ride (or in the middle of one). *
Nicely done, Herbert!
Great interview. Will be great to see him on the podium in Beijing!
Tich was/is very funny indeed and he was/is very easy to talk to.
H
Sounds like Tich may come back after all. Reading his blog confirms what I thought was going on with Tri-Canada.
Only in Canada would they tell someone that 9th at worlds wasn’t good enough.
The guy had tons of raw talent and could have been one of the top ITU players this Olympic cycle
awesome blog paul!!! and i do have to agree in some parts with some of the word he as about TRICAN… never had so much frustration, politic war and clicky group as when dealing with this federation… Committed should never pick athletes… black and white results, clear cut criteria annonce years ahead of time should be the golden rules…
Tich is one awesome person and amazing athlete…
It confirms one person’s perspective on TriCan. By the same token, this organization that has done an “incredible job of smashing athletes’ passion for the past five years” still has, in that time, produced an Olympic medal on the men’s side and the athlete on the female side who is tied for the most WCS wins since the series began. I’m not saying TriCan is all roses or anything like that, but there are two sides to every story, and the results, I would say, speak for themselves. When you have the number one ranked woman in the world, it’s a bit hard for me to take seriously claims that the organization does nothing but undercut athletes. Maybe TriCan smashed Paul’s passion. But I’m not sure it’s appropriate, especially given what compelled him to write the post in the first place, to accuse TriCan of being such bad actors in general. There are simply too many generalizations in that post that are really just personal gripes.
I hope Paul makes a return to racing. As you said, he’s got a ton of talent. But I think he needs to stop blaming TriCan. Ultimately, he got his ticket punched to Beijing. And I can’t think of anything that would have made a bigger statement than winning a medal there. Winning a medal and then saying “F* YOU!” would seem to me to have the ultimate impact. As it stands, there’s a lot of it that just sounds like sour grapes. E.g., “Engineering is a much better career than being a pro triathlete.” I’m pretty sure Alistair Brownlee makes more as pro triathlete than Paul does as an engineer. And as for his quote, “You can’t coach passion.” I must have missed where it was ever part of a coach’s job description to provide passion. I know Joel never felt that was his job. Nor did any of us who trained with him day-in-and-day-out ever feel that it was his job either. Again, the fact that he says he never had a coach who knew how to inspire says more, to me, about him than it does about his coaches.
I really hope he races in Edmonton. And I hope he kicks ass. He’s got the ability. And hopefully he’s rediscovered the passion to make the most of that ability. It’d be too bad if he let something, whether real or imagined or somewhere in between, take that away.
It confirms one person’s perspective on TriCan. By the same token, this organization that has done an “incredible job of smashing athletes’ passion for the past five years” still has, in that time, produced an Olympic medal on the men’s side and the athlete on the female side who is tied for the most WCS wins since the series began. I’m not saying TriCan is all roses or anything like that, but there are two sides to every story, and the results, I would say, speak for themselves. When you have the number one ranked woman in the world, it’s a bit hard for me to take seriously claims that the organization does nothing but undercut athletes. Maybe TriCan smashed Paul’s passion. But I’m not sure it’s appropriate, especially given what compelled him to write the post in the first place, to accuse TriCan of being such bad actors in general. There are simply too many generalizations in that post that are really just personal gripes.
I hope Paul makes a return to racing. As you said, he’s got a ton of talent. But I think he needs to stop blaming TriCan. Ultimately, he got his ticket punched to Beijing. And I can’t think of anything that would have made a bigger statement than winning a medal there. Winning a medal and then saying “F* YOU!” would seem to me to have the ultimate impact. As it stands, there’s a lot of it that just sounds like sour grapes. E.g., “Engineering is a much better career than being a pro triathlete.” I’m pretty sure Alistair Brownlee makes more as pro triathlete than Paul does as an engineer. And as for his quote, “You can’t coach passion.” I must have missed where it was ever part of a coach’s job description to provide passion. I know Joel never felt that was his job. Nor did any of us who trained with him day-in-and-day-out ever feel that it was his job either. Again, the fact that he says he never had a coach who knew how to inspire says more, to me, about him than it does about his coaches.
I really hope he races in Edmonton. And I hope he kicks ass. He’s got the ability. And hopefully he’s rediscovered the passion to make the most of that ability. It’d be too bad if he let something, whether real or imagined or somewhere in between, take that away.
Great post Jordan. I too hope that Paul finds his passion/motivation again.
Tom Tellez once said his job as a coach was to TEACH, not motivate. The track was his classroom and he was the teacher and the athletes were there to learn. He always said he never tried to motivate his athletes, that it wasn’t his place to do that.
I would disagree with you. A Coach’s job (at high level performance) is to get the most out of the athletes. If that means teaching technique or motivating athletes then so be it.
You probably have seen coachs speechs for football or hockey teams where before a big game where they give some big motivating speech.
@Rap, yes I agree, Brownlee and a few other ITU guy probably make a pretty good living. But how many are barely getting by? Maybe in the back of his head he knew he could walk away from tri and make 80K a year working 9-5 and not deal with the bullshit
Who knows, maybe Canada would have another medal contender right now if TriCan had said to Paul “Great job on 9th at Worlds, you have the potential to medal one day, we are going to fully support your development over the next 4 years, you are only early 20’s, you have a shot to medal in 2012”
TriCan is not the only athletic body full of morons. I know some marathon guys in Canada and one of the ran 2:12:xx and Athletics Canada has told him that was not good enough to get an Olympic ticket even though it is one on the fastest marathons ever run by a a Canadian and well below the ‘B’ Standard of 2:16:xx
“awesome blog paul!!! and i do have to agree in some parts with some of the word he as about TRICAN… never had so much frustration, politic war and clicky group as when dealing with this federation… Committed should never pick athletes… black and white results, clear cut criteria annonce years ahead of time should be the golden rules…”
in my experience, the phrase ‘same shit, different people/place’ applies to sporting federations, both in other sports and across triathlon around the world… they all have exactly the same problems, issues, complaints, etc, it’s just different people involved… such is sport…
Paul didn’t achieve a clear cut criteria and was picked for beijing anyway… you can comment that the criteria was changed 6 months before, but the outcome was the same, he was selected to the team. He had a great sprint campaign and that was a great result in vancouver. But it didn’t achieve the selection criteria.
It’s unfortunate that he has such baggage from the olympic experience… their are lots of things in sport that can’t be controlled, all one can do is chose their attitude, and to handle ones’ self with class regardless of the ‘politics of sport’.
Changing the selection criteria in the same year as the games was a low class move. Paul is super guy. I have ‘raced’ him locally here and Alberta and know his sister from our swimming days. Best of luck buddy. Tisch - if you read this PM me.
Read his blog post from 11/08/2009.
Hilarious!