What’s talent got to do with it?

If given the choice between talent and potential, which would you go for? Think about it. We’ll come back to this later.

Most of us might be able to recall a fellow pupil, teammate or athlete who appears to subdue the opponent just by their mere presence, maybe because of their previous performance or perhaps because of a preconceived perception.

I remember taking part in school competitions and over hearing hushed whispers, pupils from other schools saying "the Black girl will win".

I was the only Black girl in the competition and hearing others talking about me like that felt strange.

Not because of the pressure of the assumption, but because of the pointing out that I was different. 

Because it’s not until it’s pointed out to you, either deliberately or via an innocent remark, whether about ethnicity, race, gender or disability, for example, that your sense of belonging to a group, a collective or a sport can come crashing down.  

The comment didn’t make sense to me at the time but it’s something that I have never forgotten and often recall when working on our talent pathway.

Breaking barriers and assumptions

I consider that assumptions on someone’s ability, based on their belonging to a particular background, should be eradicated.

Even if – like in my case – they predicted a positive outcome (they thought I was going to win!) these kinds of predictions are false.

And this falsehood is something that we want to eradicate so we can be successful in supporting national governing bodies (NGBs) and our partners in identifying and recruiting talent from under-represented groups in the UK by understanding their barriers and ultimately broaden the potential pool of talent.
 

Talent can often be misunderstood with the assumption that a commitment to work hard is not required, the need to be disciplined unnecessary and the element of resilience, irrelevant.

Usain Bolt, otherwise known as the greatest sprinter of all time having won eight Olympic gold medals, summed it up flawlessly when he said "hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”, reinforcing the importance of dedication and perseverance in achieving success.

Our talent inclusion programme

This is because whilst hard work may count for an element of the talent pathway, so does, for example, economics, geography and fundamentally the opportunity to take part in sport in the first place. 

And so our seven guiding principles were designed to provide a strong foundation on which to build our talent inclusion strategic intent.

A system that confines itself solely to the identification of talent based on current performances (such as winners of junior competitions) will not necessarily pick up those with the most long-term potential. 

So, what do we mean when we talk about talent inclusion? 

Maybe a better place to start is what we don’t mean.

Inclusion in talent doesn't mean we have to forfeit winning medals or creating a high-performing environment, but it does mean a renewed emphasis on the culture and environment created within talent pathways so athletes feel comfortable being open about themselves.  

For example, during Ramadan, sports settings may need to adapt the training demands of athletes who are fasting, or need to pray, with conversations about how to best accommodate these religious schedule of prayers.

Inclusion in talent doesn't mean NGBs having to match the UK/England demographics of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity to the exact percentage.

Inclusion in talent does mean NGBs and partners should know who’s in their talent pathway and know who their wider participants are so they can understand barriers that prevent people progressing into the talent system. 

This knowledge will help our partners attract participants, develop athletes in our talent system and increase NGBs' talent pools.

I'll repeat: a system that confines itself solely to the identification of talent based on current performances (such as winners of junior competitions) will not necessarily pick up those with the most long-term potential. 

In summary, we risk missing out on potentially talented athletes and coaches unless we take a broader and more long-term view.

So talent or hard work?

And so back to the question we opened with – if given the choice between talent and potential and you can only choose one, which would you go for? 

Perhaps both, because talent by itself won’t win you first places, but hard work will.

And because talent and hard work don’t just belong in a particular protected community.

They can be found everywhere and we’ll work hard to make sure we find it.