Paula Radcliffe out of London 2012 Olympic Games marathon. How has that happened again?

With the not-to-surprising news that Paula Radcliffe has withdrawn from the Olympic Marathon due to a foot injury, I thought again about why this happens. For Paula’s fans, it is disappointing – though it will be much more gutting for Paula. Some of our most vivid memories of Paula are of Athens in 2004, where she stopped at the 36Km mark of the Olympic Marathon in floods of tears.

Doesn’t it seem obvious to us all that athletes should just avoid becoming injured, when injuries can rule them out of competing at their best, or even competing at all? If this is obvious for us fans, why then don’t athletes ‘get it’?

I believe the answer to this is that injuries aren’t always clear to an athlete and important factors get in the way of an athlete managing potential or actual injuries. Plus, this situation is compounded during an Olympic year.

First of all, what is an injury? An easy example is something that stops an athlete, such as a runner, from running. Okay, but what if the runner can still run, although they do so with slightly altered biomechanics, with some level of pain, or with a bit of tenderness that doesn’t seem quite right? Do each of these classify as an injury? We also need to bear in mind the normal states of an athlete’s body. Over time their body will feel a range of levels of fatigue, stiffness and soreness. This is normal for athletes, what they live with, what they train with. They don’t just train on days when they feel good or fresh. When then does an athlete decide that their sensation or niggle might indicate a risk of injury? If an athlete thinks this at the first sign of soreness or a niggle, they would spend more time inside a physio or doctors office than out there training.

The athlete needs to identify that there is a potential problem and then decide on how to respond. This again isn’t as straightforward as it first appears. If the athlete has a big injury, such as torn Achilles tendon, they need to seek a sports doctor for assessment and probable surgery. For other niggles or potential injuries the athlete needs to decide if their level of worry is high enough to seek help and if so to consider which person or profession is the best – a sports doctor, physiotherapist, sports masseur, podiatrist... The athlete also needs to consider whether their concern is significant enough to speak to their coach about modifying their training load, which the coach may or may not agree with.

I believe that in most cases the development of an injury is only really clear when an athlete looks back at the lead-up or when an injury develops quickly without much if any warning.

Let’s now go back a few steps and think about how an injury develops and why more seem to affect our stars during the Olympics, compared to other seasons. To get better in sport an athlete places a training load on the body, which the body recovers from and then supercompensates – rebuilds to a level that is greater than before the training load. The risk of injury increases if the load is too high for what the body can absorb, or if the body is under-recovered when a training load which should be fine is placed on the body.  As Paula puts it:

‘No-one tells us in advance where the limits of our own bodies lie, and pushing these limits is the only way we can ever achieve our highest goals and dreams.’

An Olympic year is the most important year to an athlete with chance of competing at the Games. Therefore, every forth year there is more motivation to train, to push, to be dedicated, to do more than before in the hope of a good performance at the Games. Only a very small percentage of competitive athletes manage to qualify for an Olympic Games. Fewer still make it to more than one Games. The chance of competing at a home Games is almost a likely as spotting a Yeti. Yes, it could happen, but you’d have to be very lucky to do so.

With the announcement 7-years ago that the Olympics are coming to London, GB athletes with the potential to compete in the Games have been training even harder than usual with the goal of qualifying for and competing in the Games. The motivation to be in shape and to take this once in a lifetime opportunity is sky high. The level of interest in GB athletes’ preparation, form, performance and personal lives from people in their communities and the media is higher than ever. This attention, hope and expectation from others creates a pressure for the athlete to cope with. The athlete may also be working with coaches who have stepped-up their game to help the athlete train harder and better for this big moment. All of this reinforces how important this Games is for the athlete and encourages training as hard as possible. The higher motivation and pressure will increase the chance that they train when their body is telling them that it is tired or is developing a niggle. They tell themselves that they push on because this is such an important year, that they must make the most of their time, follow this training programme to the letter, and fear backing-off as their competitors will no doubt be training hard at this time. This mental toughness, motivation and pressure clouds their ability to weigh-up the situation more objectively make good decisions when it comes to looking after their body and this is exactly what they need to do to excel.