On Friday, October 19, three members of the British Olympic Association (BOA) gave a seminar to around 140 students, staff, and faculty at Keio University on the theme of "Sustaining Performance" in the Fujiwara Hiroshi Hall, Kyoseikan Collaboration Complex. This is the first of six sessions planned over the next 2 years in the Tokyo 2020 Team GB Preparation Camp Seminar Series, and draws on the successes of Team GB at previous Olympic Games.
After welcoming the delegation from BOA, Professor Masa Inakage, the Dean of the Graduate School of Media Design (KMD) based in the Collaboration Complex building that will host Team GB's preparation camp, opened proceedings with a short presentation on some of KMD's links with Great Britain and a brief introduction to the school's Real Project, "Superhuman Sports." Dr. Paul Ford MBE, who will serve as Team GB's Deputy Chef de Mission at Tokyo 2020, then talked about how the BOA has been able to sustain performance at an organizational level, as well as some of the main considerations for running a successful preparation camp for the Games.
Mr. Brendan Purcell, Director of Performance at British Rowing, described the unique requirements of athletes competing in different events and the need for flexible performance strategies having previously worked with the British canoeing and triathlon teams. Rowing coach Mr. Paul Thompson then concluded the lectures with a discussion on how Britain's most successful sport at the Olympics has been able to sustain performance over a prolonged period. British Rowing is the only sport to have won a gold medal for Britain at every Olympics since 1984.
Members of the audience were then able to quiz the three speakers in the Q&A session that followed chaired by Mr. James Carter of the British Embassy in Tokyo, who had served as the Master of Ceremonies for the seminar. Questions were fielded from lecturers, students, and people involved in the sport of rowing, including on the issues facing Team GB in Japan and why BOA selected Keio University as its base of operations.