Lifestyle | 23 May 2024
Mark England expects – Why you need inspiration and bravery to lead Team GB at the Olympics
In an exclusive interview Team GB Chef de Mission, Mark England OBE, tells us his tenets of Olympic leadership and the one sporting performance that brought a tear to his eye.
In a wide-ranging interview Mark tells us why the person at the top needs to be “somebody who takes responsibility, somebody who’s brave”, and details his own experience of “how lonely sometimes being the leader is”.
Ahead of Paris 2024, Mark reveals how he’s planning on Team GB being a top European nation and finishing well within the top five globally, hinting at some of his internal targets for medals and recognising the pressure from a very competitive global field. He also speaks about the team’s internal drive to deliver once more – having achieved 60+ medals at each of the last three summer games under his watch.
Mark talks through the reality of managing 350 different athletes across 24 sports at an event watched by five billion people globally and how that involves –
- Ensuring psychological safety in a high-pressure environment
- Diversity in different skills, ideas and analysis
- A strong culture and comradery
- Understanding why “momentum in the Olympic Games is everything”
- Encouraging his athletes to explore a Team GB heritage that goes back to 1896.
On a more personal note, Mark also shares his proudest moment with Team GB and the one performance which “certainly brought a tear to my eye, I don’t mind admitting.”
To find out how you could become a Team GB patron, supporting our nation’s athletes and inspiring sport and learning across Britain, please email Stuart.Denard@TeamGB.com.
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