Victoria Pendleton interview in The Guardian

[kcass]

I didn't know she was having such a hard time. Well worth a read.

Part 1

Part 2

[Wowbagger]

Yes, I thought it demonstrated the huge emotional turmoil that every top class individual sportsman/woman must go through.

[cuddy duck]

I'm having a similarly hard time, and yet I'm not a top class individual sportsman/woman.
How so?

[mrcharly-YHT]

Yes, I thought it demonstrated the huge emotional turmoil that every top class individual sportsman/woman must go through.

I'm not sure that they all do. I was in a kayak club with a few world-class marathon kayak racers and most of them had a colossal ego (as in 'Lance Armstrong-sized) that sustained them through (very rare) failures. Some were quite nice people as well.

VP seems to be lots of contradictions. Slight build, yet excels in sprinting. Savagely competitive on the track, but very girl-feminine off track. Multiple-medalled world champion, yet doubts herself.

I found a very moving article.

[Mr Larrington]

Whoever wrote that should be paid a not-inconsiderable sum of money never to write for a newspaper ever again.

[Biff]

I thank the god I don't believe in for my abject lack of talent. The pressures elite athletes endure are beyond my ken

Mr Larrington: Explain please?

[Mr Larrington]

It is stylistically dreadful.

[Biff]

It is stylistically dreadful.

Fair enough. I know a lot less about journalistic style than most people.