There's more than one way to win a gold

IT was hardly the words of endorsement they wanted to hear from a past champion.

When earlier this week Liz McColgan claimed the latest generation of British athletes were under-achieving and have been hindered rather than helped by "trendy" training techniques, she was not only taking a swipe at the competitors themselves, but the dedicated team, from nutritionists to physiotherapists, who stand behind them.

The Dundonian who was silver medallist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics complained: "Running has become over-technical. It has gone away from what the sport is all about. To me, running is all about hard work and training.

"There is too much time spent going to psychologists and nutritionists now.

"What made people run faster 20 years ago was that we went out there and trained hard."

Unsurprisingly it's not a view the experts behind 2008's Scottish Olympians – there are 31 Scotsmen and women in the 313-strong national team with a further 16 in the Paralympics – would agree with.

Nearly all of the Scots competing are Scottish Institute of Sport athletes and it's the institute's sports experts who've been honing Team GB for Beijing. Here three specialists reveal just how they've got the Scottish athletes prepared for success.

The performance lifestyle manager
SUSIE ELMS

Performance lifestyle manager certainly sounds like one of those "trendy" technical experts who so riled McColgan but 45-year-old Susie, who has been with the Institute since 1999 and worked with many of the top athletes, including Commonwealth gold medallist Gregor Tait, takes the comments in her stride.

"We've worked with Liz in the past and she's one of the gutsiest, hardworking athletes we've ever come across," she says. "Perhaps her comments were designed to make today's athletes as hungry as she was.

"She's right in the sense that you need to be tough in order to make it at the top level, but in today's high performance environment you have to look at all aspects of the athletes' development, including their education, environment and future, to help them reach their performance targets."

She insists a focused mind is just as important as physical ability.

"You need to manage distractions to focus on performance," explains Susie, who lives in Pencaitland. "I deal with integrating a sport with everything else that goes on with an athlete's life. It's about minimising the distraction to allow them to focus on their performance.

"For example, with Gregor we look at using his profile in swimming, and also how to manage the distractions that could influence his performance."

Recently, Susie has been working with judo players Euan Burton, Michelle Rodgers and Sarah Clark, hockey player Laura Bartlett and Paralympian swimmer Mhairi Love, who are all also in Beijing.

The performance nutritionist
ADELLE PURBRICK

According to Adelle, who's been a performance nutritionist with the Institute since 2007, nutrition is a key part of an athletes's success, third on the list after genetics and a top training regime.

"Without taking anything away from the effort that Liz put in 20 years ago, it's important to remember that these athletes are competing on a world stage and every country in the world is examining every aspect of an athlete's performance to get the best out of them.

"We're not saying that you can eat your way to a gold medal. All we're saying is that good nutrition can enhance your performance.

"You have to be able to support your training with the nourishment you take in from your food to get the success you're aiming for."

Adelle, 28, from Newington, co-ordinates the nutritional input for many of the top Scottish athletes, such as paralympians Andrew Lindsay, Mhairi Love and Charlotte Henshaw, as well as the cerebral palsy footballers Graham Paterson, Jonathon Paterson, Kieran Martin and Mark Robertson.

"Athletes do so many hours training, and push their bodies so hard, so if they're not getting the right nutrition and hydration in all the time then they're not going to excel."

Every athlete needs different energy for each event, resulting in very specific nutritional programmes.

"An endurance athlete will need to eat meals high in carbohydrates, because when they perform long distance they use up all their blood glucose for energy, so they need as much as possible to perform as long as possible.

"A strength athlete will need to be able to produce power, and build their muscles for this. They need good protein and carbohydrates for their fuel and power. It's hugely important to get it right. If you don't, you're starting off a leg behind everyone else."

While Adelle won't be out in Beijing with her athletes – Scotland competes as part of Great Britain and there is a team of nutritionists out there – she will be in constant communication with the team.

"And I'll be watching them on the TV and cheering them on too, of course."

The physiotherapist
KIRSTY GRAHAMSLAW

Nutrition counts for nothing if the athletes are not in peak physical condition.

"The performance of these athletes relies on a consistency in training, and my role is to make sure the athletes are physically prepared for what they do," explains the 33-year-old physiotherapist from Roseburn.

"My role includes injury prevention, injury management and the best training methods. What's so powerful about our modern approach is that we can all work together to enhance an athletes performance.

"I will speak to the nutritionist and the lifestyle manager to pool our expertise and make sure the athlete is able to do the job and be free from injury.

"With respect to Liz McColgan, every athlete is different, which is why we offer bespoke services to cater for each athlete's different needs."

Kirsty, who has been with the Scottish Institute of Sport since 2007, has specialised in musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy since 2001. After a stint at Hearts FC, she now helps a wide range of athletes and is directly involved with city-based judo athletes Sarah Clarke, Michelle Rogers and Euan Burton, who are all competing in Beijing.

In the run-up to the Beijing Games, Kirsty has been focused on injury prevention. She says: "All these guys have talent to start with. The application is there, as is the psychology and how they approach it. Our role is to help them with how they approach obstacles and failure, and what they gain from that.

"From a physical point of view, the determination to develop and the commitment to become a stronger and more robust athlete is incredibly important for success."

So how does she feel about watching her athletes out there on the international stage?

"It's going to be amazing. I feel so proud to have been even a tiny part of this."