Ballet & Olympic parents

[Pas de Quatre]

Parents of Olympians deserve a medal too

 

This was an interesting column by Janice Turner in Saturday's Times. It is worth reading.  In our family we have had DD go through the Vocational dance route, and my nephew is training as a swimmer - too young for this Olympics, but maybe the next.  He swims nationally and had his first international competition just before the first lockdown.  We have always joked that we had a much easier time of it with ballet training than they do with swimming!

Edited July 25, 2021 by Pas de Quatre
Repetition

[Kate_N]

Excellent article - thanks for the alert to it @Pas de Quatre Janice Turner is always interesting and in this column she nails it. Was talking Olympic swimming with my trainer in the gym the other day - his father was an Olympic possibility for swimming and I remember being at school with some top-flight swimmers. With my friends at school, what was obvious was the dedication of the whole family for swimming. 
 

and yes, it’s similar for ballet, for music, for anything which requires the very highest of achievements attainable only to a few.  
 

it’s why I am ambivalent about the kind of patriotic language at these times “We won a medal” “A medal for Great Britain” - yes, we support many athletes through public (tax payers) support and the National Lottery.

 

but it’s the athletes and their families who do the hard yards!

[Peony]

Not being a morning person I think swim training would finish me off. Even at club level I know parents getting up at 4am to take kids to training and then they all go off and do a days work/school!