North West Olympic Dreams

Doesn't it look fantastic? The Olympic Park almost ready for the

greatest show on the earth. Welcome to North West Olympic Dreams,

looking at sports men and women from the North West, hoping to win

the medals this summer in the 2012 Olympic Games. Some of them will be

going for gold and others just want to be hip. I am Steve Parry and

this is North West Olympic Dreams. Coming up, we meet the teenager

following in the footsteps of a legend and doing it at close

quarters. He can ride, fence and swim. He can also run and shoot.

The Lancashire man facing a five- star Olympic challenge. They have

got a house full of medals but are chasing more. The husband and wife

team with their Paralympic story. The scientists giving us a high-

tech advantage. We go into the flat and are the guinea pigs for a day.

Punching above her weight, beat Liverpool woman hoping to make

Olympic history in boxing. They are the North West hopefuls with their

Eight years ago I was lucky enough to win a medal in the pool in

Athens and seeing this amazing facility almost makes me want to

start again. Winning that medal has opened up a world of opportunity

for me and gave me a moment I will never forget. But it is only a

handful at get the opportunity to win an Olympic medal. One of those

people is three-time world champion Beth Tweddle from the double. At 26

she is called a veteran and cheeky people call her old. -- from

Liverpool. But she has started a If there is one hot spot of

potential Olympic excellence in the North West it is the Liverpool

Gymnastics Club. Three women are preparing for a tilt at the medals.

Beth Tweddle, current British champion and a Whelan and rising

star, Jennifer Pinches. -- Hannah Whelan. They are national champions

and are working towards 2012. At the moment it is 24-7. Beth Tweddle

understands London 2012 is a last chance of Olympic glory. She is

Britain's greatest ever gymnast but at 26, she is a veteran. Change

your hands. Jennifer Pinches has got a whole career in front of her.

The 17-year-old from Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire is in the lucky

position of being able to train alongside one of the great and

receive coaching from one of the best. Jenny is getting there. She

is 17 at the moment. We had five years together. She is one of the

most talented gymnasts I have worked with. She has got to

concentrate a bit harder to achieve her goals. When they walk through

the door, if they are willing to work hard in the double, we

understand how to work champions. - - in Liverpool. We have had lots of

different people doing the great work to create that. What makes the

difference is the ones willing to work, day-in and day-out. Not for

days a week, six days a week and giving 100 %. -- four days a week.

She trains 50 miles away in Liverpool. She has understanding

from families, teachers, coaches and training partners. Once a week,

she lodges with bet Tweddell. time are we back? I am being picked

up at 3 o'clock. She leads about an hour and a half away. I used to

stay over because we finish at 8 o'clock at night and we have to be

backed at 9 o'clock in the morning and it is too much travelling and

you can sleep better if you stay over. I stay here and she stays

there. She is like an older sister. I am with her quite a lot in the

gym and we are a way together with the gymnastics team. I spend more

time with Beth Tweddle, hander and Amanda than my parents. In my life,

probably. -- hammer. She is a good And what a role model. If Jennifer

is to achieve her ambitions, she need look no further than her

trading partner and occasional landlady. She is not just the role

model for them but for the country. Ask anybody in the street to name a

gymnast, they will probably name Nadia Comaneci or Olga Korbut but

Beth Tweddle is in the public eye now. It has not happened by

accident. To get to the top takes determination had complete

dedication. You are working every day in that gym and it is hard and

you do not always want to get out of bed and had six hours of

Amanda gives us some day off. That is our day to do what we once did

it. -- Sunday. You can speak to your friends and say that you are

free Saturday Night and Sunday it. You have to make time for your

friends as well as trading. But when you are on that podium and you

have got that goal that he wanted, it makes that worthwhile. You do

not remember the hard times. Only the good times. While she is

praying she could end her career in a blaze of glory, Jennifer is

simply hoping she will be selected this time round. After that, who

can tell? It is great having Beth Tweddle. She understands what it

takes to win world championship medals. Gold medals. She is very

successful and the best gymnast we have had in Britain. You can talk

to her and she will understand what To do well in most Olympic events,

you have to be absolutely outstanding at one discipline. One

young man from Lancashire has to be amazing at five events to get any

chance of making his mark. How does he cope? I used to struggle with

remembering my swimming kit but he has got five different sports.

Stuart Pollit explains. It does not get much more diverse than this.

Horse riding, swimming, fencing, running and pistol shooting. You

need to be good at all these to compete in the modern pentathlon

arm. Fortunately for Steven Mason, he is. Five sport. Every day is

going to be different. You can have a good day at fencing and goes

wobbling. You can have a bad day swimming and have a good day

running. -- go swimming. He was destined to get into the event. You

could say it runs in the family. His father has been involved with

and athletes for years and has been involved in the pathway programme.

His mother is an administrator, organising her husband and her

son's leads. His sister is a junior champion in a running and swimming

event. He was following us around and he thought, I might as well get

stuck in. His sister was inspirational. My sister has been

in by a clumsy. That was pretty good. This is where I have ended up.

-- buyout slums. Stephen made the British squad at 17. -- by athlete

Like all Olympians, he has to put in the hard work and in his case,

he has to do kid macro five times over. A busy week of training,

would be eight training sessions and free gym sessions and shooting

and five running sessions. Lessons of 45 minutes. A couple of hours of

playing, riding. Once and twice a week. It takes a lot for him to

have achieved what he has achieved. A lot of determination and hard

work. Socialising, he does not get to do much of that. Friday night he

will be at home and off to bed at 11 o'clock because he is winning

early in the morning. It is a sacrifice. Although training for

the Olympics sounds glamourous, it can be anything but. Running and

shooting have been combined in depend athlete event. His

neighbours are getting used to him pounding the streets. Then firing a

few rounds in the driveway. Nice work. You must get some funny looks.

Whenever the postman comes. He thinks I am shooting at him.

actually it is harmless, isn't it? It is just a bit of light coming

straight out of the end of the gum. Like all athletes, is got an idea

of which disciplines he is best at and which ones need a bit of extra

work. From best to worst, I would probably say running, first,

followed by fencing and riding. I have never dropped below a certain

standard. Then my worst is swimming Swimming is what I dread. I hate

swimming training and it hurts the most. You have got to get in and do

it. You cannot let one of them came do everything else. Get in and get

on with it and get up and down. dramatic tattoo on his back bears

the names of his family and illustrates their importance to his

ambitions. It was definitely worth it. They got me through everything

and have supported me. I want to give something back to them, I

guess. The family will continue to be there, supporting his dream.

a parent, you want him to do his best. It would be amazing if he got

a medal. For me, him achieving a gold medal at getting into the

Olympics, that would make us all There is a goal, to get to the

Olympics and it is never going to come round again. I am only going

to get one chance so why not give The Olympic Games doesn't finish

here in August with the closing ceremony. In fact it is just

halfway because a couple of weeks later, we have got the Paralympic

Games. As always, the North West is well represented. No. More so than

over there at the Velopark, where the cycling is taking place. It can

When you are in training for the Paralympics, you must have an

understanding partner because the hours are long and there are times

when you are away from home for days. It is pretty handy with your

other half is also in training for the Paralympics. You need to get a

bit faster. That is the situation in the Storey household. Sarah is a

Paralympic and world champions at all times over. Her husband is an

able bodies pilot for blind cyclists. He is a double gold medal

winner as well. Sport really keeps us going, doesn't it? I think both

of us are very enthusiastic about sport. We are sporting anoraks.

had a similar upbringing. Barney and myself. Very similar families.

Mum and dad helped me and my brother and sister and Barney's mum

and dad helped him. We have done sport since we were very young. It

is strange we have grown up in two ends of the country's but have

similar value. Sarah is a sporting phenomenon. She won an incredible

16 swimming medals, including five golf. In 2005, she switched to

cycling and in Beijing, she won and other two gold medals. Changing

sports was not a big deal because I had done a lot as a kid at school

at county and at national level. These were able-bodied sport.

Running and everything. Table tennis. I tried everything. Cycling

is the sport I had not tried competitively. Whatever she would

do, she would be brilliant. She has I've had phenomenal success in a

short space of time with that event and certainly it's not the end of

me in team pursuit, it's just for now it's important that I

concentrate on the Paralympics. Manchester may be blessed with the

National Cycling Centre but it is also blessed with the sort of

weather which sends road cyclists in search of warmer climes. So

while the rest of us were enjoying turkey dinners and festive telly,

Barney and Sarah headed for a We're about half-way through the

week, five days down and the training's been going really well,

the weather's been superb which is always good to have. We've been

hearing reports from back home and there's been some rain going on and

it's not been particularly good weather so we would definitely have

beenstuck inside on the turbo had Both Barney and Sarah have a hectic

year ahead - something they plan carefully with their Communications

manager, Helen Scott. I've pulled a few things together for after the

Worlds - a few requests that have come in. I've put them in little

blocks here when you can fit stuff in. Both are in the British squad

for next month's Paracycling World track championships in LA. After

that, it's full steam ahead for London 2012. I think the Paralympic

Games have changed since my first games in Athens in 2004 and then

Beijing in 2008. I think people's awareness of the Games now are so

much more so it's a great thing to be having the Games in our own

country and I think people's interest will be so much more than

there's ever been. The hard work's been done in many ways but we've

still got the final preparations to do and we still don't know exactly

how many riders we're going to have on our team. At the moment it's

looking as if I could take part in four or five events so all to play

Olympic medals are won and lost in a split second or by a fraction of

a millimetre. Half a second slower and I would have finished fourth -

and wouldn't be here today doing this! And it's when margins are

tight, you've got to do everything you can to give yourself the best

chance of winning. That's where Sports Science comes in. In our

region we've got some of the best technology and best people around.

Jacey Normand turned guinea pig to find out more.

And Steven Parry's got about four strokes to hold on for a bronze

medal. Come on Steven - he's got it! This is the moment when Steve

put his mark on British sport finishing alongside the great

Michael Phelps. In those days the use of Sports science was becoming

an important part of an athlete's preparation. Now it's essential.

This is the pool where Steve used to train - home to the Stockport

Metro club and current Olympic hopefuls Kerry Ann Payne, James

Goddard and Michael Rock. The man who looks like he's holding a stick

in the water is sports physiologist Ben Hollis from the Manchester-

based English Institute of Sport. The stick is actually an underwater

camera which helps him to examine the technique of some of our best

swimmers. We use race analysis on a daily and weekly basis. We look at

how much time there is to be gained compared to Dan's best performances

but also looking at the best in the world, looking at how those margins

can be made. John Moore Universityin Liverpool

is currently helping Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls to maximise

their potential in time for this summer's Games. Dan Highcock from

St Helens is part of the GB wheelchair basketball team and his

training regime has been carefully calibrated by coach Peter Angell.

At the top level, you think of a sprinter for example,the difference

between first and second in the Olympic Final can be down to

hundredths if not less of a second. It's those small differences that

can have a huge impact basically. Have you seen a lot of improvement?

Yes - I can keep working at the same rate. I'm relentless. I just

keep on going and keep on going. We're going to look at ways we can

improve your respiratory function, how you might adapt to different

environments and we're also going to look at your running style

through the biomechanics lab. Before I can start I need a lung

function test - as I have suffered from mild asthma in the past.

That's it - keep going, keep pushing it, keep going, keep going

and then a big breath in. Got about 3.5 litres out in one second. For

your height and age that's about 97% of what we expect to see.

Anything above 90% of predicted is what we call normal. So there's

nothing about my results that concerns you about my ability to

exercise with mild asthma? So it's on to my first test. We're more

interested in giving you a real big dose of dry air for high

ventilation rates and breathing in dry air from the gas bottle. It's

the dry air which is the big trigger for the exercise-induced

asthma. That's what we're interested in - do you have any

exercise-induced asthma? Here comes the gas through the system. Let's

go. Nice big deep breaths. Little bit harder. Little bit faster.

That's it. Imagine you're running for that bus. You just got up late

for work and you're really pushing Stop there. Take that out. Oh my

God that was horrible! That was awful! Next up is an examination of

my running style. It's quite straight your thigh angle. It

should probably be at a greater angle. I was specifically looking

at barefoot running and we did find that they got more comfortable with

time to, the running conditions. They landed with greater force

which, when you're not used to a condition you tend to tiptoe around

and they landed with greater force so yes, they did improve. Finally,

it's on to the hard-core stuff - I'm off to the climate chamber. The

good news is the temperature will be over 30 degrees Celsius. The bad

news? I'm going to have to run in it. Remember this is the low

intensity phase we haven't asked That should give you some idea of

how hard athletes have to work. This chamber - it's really hot in

here and I'm used to running on a treadmill and THAT was exhausting!

After all that it's time for the verdict from Dr John. First off -

100% effort, so it's a fantastic effort and that's what we're

looking for from an elite athlete. Commitment from the start. In terms

of respiratory function that looked perfectly normal. In terms of the

work in the environmental chamber - normal physiological response -

when you work at a higher temperature, your body's going to

work hard and we saw that in there. We saw that you're a heel striker

and maybe we can improve the way you're striking and the force that

goes through your legs. We saw a few weaknesses but obviously what

we can do there is analyse it a bit more, put a training programme

together to take you on to the next level.

Well I've really had to dig deep today and I think you'll find out a

lot of things I didn't really want everybody to know, including how

bad my running was! But with a bit of science and a bit of practice

maybe I could also have a career as an Olympian. Not! The Ancient

Greeks were fond of a test of strength. The original games

featured boxing and wrestling. But what they would have made of the

martial arts programme in 2012? Because for the first time ever, it

features women's boxing. And a young lady from Toxteth is one of

At 26, Natasha Jonas is hoping to make history - to be part of the

first generation of women ever to compete for Olympic boxing gold.

Obviously it's the first time it's going to be in the Olympics, and

we've got it in London so it's on home soil. I'm really proud of my

achievements so far but to get to the Olympics for an amateur it's

just the greatest achievement. Her Olympic dreams still hang in

the balance. Tasha is fourth in the world amateur rankings but is one

of eight women in the GB squad. By May next year that figure will be

reduced to just three who will go to the games. While she waits for

the selection decision, she competes, trains and works. It's

the blue one - there must be something in the bin! Tasha is a

customer service advisor for Liverpool city council. They

support her with an Elite Sports scholarship. It means she can be

flexible about when she works, and can also continue with her

relentless training. There were rumours around the office that I

was some kind of athlete, but no one actually knew what I did. But

Tasha trains at the Rotunda ABC in Kirkdale - one of the most

successful amateur clubs in the country. It's produced 33 national

champions in the last 15 years and trainer Mick McAllister knows why

Her discipline, her dedication and she trains very hard. She never

questions anything that you give As part of team GB, Tasha now

spends most of her week at the English Institute of Sport in

Sheffield. Her links with her home club are being stretched. She just

comes back to us on the Friday so she's down there four days now

training with all the Elites. Walmsley, head of development on

the GB squad used to coach at The Rotunda. He's trained 75 national

champions. Liverpool is traditionally a hot bed of boxing

and there's a lot of clubs. It's just in our genes if you like.

She's a very skilful boxer but I think her calmness and her ability

to box under pressure if you like. It's not that dangerous as a sport.

I had more injuries playing football than any other sport I've

done. I'd encourage my kids to be athletic and do to a form of sport.

If they chose it to be boxing then I'd support them all the way just

like my family have. If Tasha is to realise her dream of

walking into the Olympic stadium for this summer's opening ceremony,

she must maintain her status as Britain's number one in the

lightweight division. I for one wouldn't bet against her. You can

be anything you want to be. Anyone from anywhere can be anything. Just

because I'm black, or I'm from Liverpool 8 or I'm a woman doesn't

mean that I can't aspire to be what I want. And if you ask for it and

you fully believe it then that's Well, there's only six months to go

before the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony and time's really gonna

fly. For our athletes there's fitness levels to sort out,