Documentary Time …
I recently watched The Price of Gold.
It is a Swedish documentary that takes a look at what sacrifices elite athletes have to make in order to push human maximums for the sake of sport.
For this they followed some of Sweden’s top track and field athletes (Carolina Klüft, Christian Olsson, Susanna Kallur) and tell the stories of their training lives and the injuries that came with their lifestyle.
Vimeo Mirror:
O man, it was incredible!
Good documentary. The most shocking thing to see was the male decathlete’s left elbow lockout.
I need a cortisone shot after seeing those cleans. Real shame about the younger athletes.
Amazing to hear how hungry they are/were and that they were breaking records and winning medals while dieting and/or hungry! Maybe another reason for the high injury rates as well… what say you?
That had to do with stress. Most of the injuries were stress related, over training etc. So stress plays a huge role in injuries. They need to change their training methods somewhat the fact all the young athletes are getting serious injuries is not good.
Both dieting and general stress combine to impact cortisol levels and leptin/ghrelin (sorry to beat a dead horse). Like He said down below, too much stress is no good.
Do all Swedish people look like models? Great documentary though
Christian Olsson (triple jumper, height 1.92m, weight about 73kg) do hang power clean with 147,5kg O_o BEAST!
Susanna just recently commented on the positive doping cases from USA and Jamaica, stating that at least her own records had been set with just regular food. She forgot all the anti inflamatory drugs she took during her carrer and on top of that the Xylocain injections she got in her tibia to be able to train and take part in the 2008 Olympics…
You are considering the use of NSAIDs as doping? Why? Not arguing with you… I am sincerely curious to why you would think this.
It is the exact same thing. You have to get through a training program that your body can’t adapt to and handle. You get hurt! Instead of talong one step back and listen to the body, you take drugs to get rid of the pain and be able to carry on with the program…
I’m not saying that NSAID’s are doping beacause they ain’t. But using them to be able to train and compete is basically the same thing as doping! Not to
Mention that they have foten openly talked about the use of corticosteroid injections, which according to WADA, is doping!
Gotcha; thanks for responding as I was interested in your reply. Food for thought mate. Cheers.
if you start with a bad premise,you end with a bad answer.
All elite sport is based on performance enhancement-you ban that,you confuse elite sport..So cortisone is allowed (you know the long term damage of cortisone),and some footballer gets a temporary ban for cocaine.
Cocaine is not performance enhancing-it is incredibly stupid and fuels s ome fascist mafia,but it ain’t going to make you run quicker or pass the ball more accurately.
Oxygen tents allowed,high altitude training allowed – I could go on-no wonder athletes are confused-they both represent performance enhancement.
ok-let us try a different test-does taking whatever result in a shorter life expectancy for the athlete?
If it does,ban it,those taking it,those coaching and encouraging the consumption -FOR LIFE.
That is simple
I think Agne Bergvall is an incompetent. He sould be banned. The ridiculous thought that you need to completely destroy your body in order to win medals is silly. A lot of athletes have had very successful career and were almost never injured : Michael Johnson, Frankie Fredericks, Jonathan Edwards. The issue is not having one athlete badly injured, that can happen. But if all your athletes are systematically injured with the same kind of injuries and you think it is ok, then you’re just incompetent. Shame on you Swedish coaches.
I agree. Look at Chinese athletes. Long tedious hours lifting but they spend almost equal amounts of time recovering. The form of some of the exercises shown such as the lifting and depth jumps were terrible. The decisions made by the athletes were also poor and the coaches should not have let them train whilst injured.
It also seems their diets were horrid. The woman who’s bones were that brittle. Most the athletes looked almost malnourished.
I also agree.
I wonder if Bergvall ever competed himself? If he did, he should have a better idea on athlete’s recovery and reducing injury and burn-out.
It seemed like the athletes didn’t cycle their training at all , it was just balls-to-the-wall all the time, no wonder they are plagued by injuries.
What kind of coach has their athletes do a single leg depth drop a day before competition? An idiot who doesn’t understand the proper use of shock training. It’s like they read the soviet sports training literature but didn’t understand how to apply it properly.
If the Swedish government spent $50 million kronars or euros, and built the most hi-tech training facilities. they could at least have gotten some competent coaches.
Agree!
But it’s been the way for too many coaches everywhere in the world. The fact is that we only remember the medals….
Great website. Thank you for that post and many others!!!!
Thanks Dave
Good Documentary – It captured the tunnel vision mentality of the athletes,
BUT – What concerned me was the fact that several of those injured athletes were all trained by the same coach. It seemed that they didn’t have a grasp of the concept of periodization and were overtrained chronically. They were using other training concepts wrong and injuring themselves during training and then competing injured.
They misused the plyometric/shock training – those tactic should only be used for several weeks close to competition and then tapered off befpre competing.
They showed footage of the heptathlete girl, the day before competing, doing a warm-up depth drop that resulted in a injury. That’s pure stupidity or just terrible coaching.
Yeahhhh!!
Just imagine all those athletes that don’t get to the top, but yet they give everything. A younger non elite athlete can be just as obsessed about track as the elite athletes, and it can mean just as much to them, but yet they are forced to quit due to injuries or other problems. Is it still worth it?