Behind the times

As I stand here watching the people board for my flight I ask myself is this necessary?

You might say well its necessary if your university course isn’t on offer within the country or that if I’m having trouble finding a job it is necessary moving abroad so I can earn a living. But what if I was to tell you it’s neither of these two previous reasons but in fact it’s because I am chasing a dream of becoming a world champion in my chosen sport of Track Cycling and I don’t have the facilities within my own country to make this dream become a reality.

I am Mark Downey a 20 year old from Northern Ireland- Track specialist a double European medallist and just recently won an Elite World Cup in Apeldoorn in my chosen event the points race – this has now gave me the confidence to make my dream become my goal for the 2017 season. My location for training is Majorca Island as it has a velodrome for me to train on and prepare for my main races. This means spending long periods away from my family spending their money on food, flights and basically things to stand on my own two feet. You may start to think well if it’s costing this amount of money surely you would think of stopping and finding a job? Why should I? Would you tell your son/ daughter or family relation to ever stop doing what they love just because it’s costing them money? I know you wouldn’t.

Let’s look at one of Ireland’s most prestigious sports stars at the minute: Rory McIroy. Let’s picture his childhood without a golf course to play or practice on, do you think he would be the same player today had he not had these facilities in fact do you think he still would have had an interest in playing golf if he didn’t have several locations to play to be introduced to the sport as a young boy. Or perhaps imagine a boy with a football with nowhere to play it or a girl with a netball with no ring to shoot for? It is hard to imagine because it is nearly impossible well this is the problem I face everyday living within Northern Ireland/Ireland not having a velodrome to train on.

In all sports we have critics and likewise in cycling it’s very much the same, with Great Britain and Australia being the 2 dominant nations within the sport of track cycling. I hear people say let’s just do what the dominant nations do within the sport? But how can we – we are fighting a losing battle – I have also heard people speak verbally about why Cycling Ireland try to train young athletes on the track we are never going to be able to compete with no velodrome. If we had this attitude about everything in life we would all be very unsuccessful people – we can change this and I think it’s about time we did! Imagine the money I am investing on flights living abroad etc and if I was to take this money and invest it into something like better equipment they thing they call within the sport as marginal gains (which basically is minor details that are the difference between winning and losing).

As a 20 year old I can tell you straight up right now why they are the dominant nations within the sport of track cycling  is because they have the money being spent on development programmes and the fact they have the facilities to train on.  I know this because I have raced the same guys since I was 14 years old and watched them grow up on a programme that they had access to  top quality facilities 24/7 but this just inspires me every time I get to the start line telling myself ok “mind over body”. No matter how much grit and determination you have however this may not balance the scale as some of you may know cycling it s tactical sport. In that sense imagine reading a 600 page book since you were the age of 8 everyday compared to getting the book at 16? Who will know it off by heart first? Who will have the words implanted in their head? For sure it will be the 8 year old as he has such a huge head start. I am using this as an example as they will know the next page before they have even turned the page and this translates into knowing how the race is going to pan out before it even happens. Having that we bit more knowledge can make the difference between winning and losing- this is the point I am stressing about is that if we can start teaching kids at the ages of 8 how to ride a velodrome it will become second nature. This is why the reason we don’t have the generations of top cyclists within this sport as it is nearly nonexistent within N.I and Ireland.

What if we were to have a Velodrome within N.I I would think out of a group of 15 children you have the potential to have at least 3 Olympians and 1 world Champion maybe even more who knows until you try. The more interest and people we have competing in a sport produces more great athletes – In N.I and Ireland we are so behind the times Great Britain now have 5 250M velodrome’s to train and race on we don’t even have 1. We are too caught up in the times of deciding this and deciding that but why can we not just confirm a site and start building. I’m pretty sure that on my rest days I would happily help lay bricks for the foundation of the building as I am that passionate about improving the circumstances of Track Cycling within N.I. Imagine we had one the difference it could do for people, children and even athletes like me. At the 2016 Rio Olympics Ireland had 1 female representative at the games – Lets make a change to that for Tokyo 2020. Let’s make changes today!

We can’t afford to waste anymore time or talent within our own country and provide any ordinary person the chance to find out if they have what it takes to be the next superstar from Northern Ireland.

 

Mark Downey