Could you win Olympic gold for Britain?

Justin Rowlatt BBC Newsnight

The UK's sporting authorities are searching for potential Olympic medallists to fund through to London 2012. Newsnight plans to follow the programme's progress.

"You can taste blood in your mouth, your lungs are burning, your legs are screaming at you. If you don't believe in yourself you are not going to get there".

That's what one of Britain's most promising young rowers, 18-year-old Mohamed Sbihi, says it takes to win a top class race.

His rowing partner, Charles Cousins who is 17, sees the sport in a similarly confrontational way. "It's basically a street fight", says Charles. "Whoever's willing to put the most in will come out on top."

Mohamed and Charles don't fit the usual rowing stereotypes. Both come from state schools and, until a team from GB Rowing visited their schools armed with measuring tapes and strength testing machines, had never considered the sport.

New generation

They are just two of a new generation of top-flight athletes who are being actively sought out by British sports. It is part of a multi-million pound effort to ensure that Britain reaps a respectable haul of medals come 2012.

Because, when it comes to Olympic sport, we Brits are pretty inured to failure. True, we always come back from the big international competitions with some prizes but never quite as many you would expect from a developed country with a population of 60m people.

Our worst performance of recent years was at Atlanta in 1996. Britain limped home with a solitary gold ranking us 35th place in the medals table alongside such sporting giants as Burundi, Hong Kong and Ecuador. We've done a bit better at recent games: Britain came in tenth at both Sydney and Athens.

Have you got what it takes? Contact UK Sport Discuss this story on the Newsnight blog

These performances are just about tolerable for away fixtures; it is a different story now that we are going to host the games. One justification for the vast expense of London 2012 is that the Games will be a wonderful advert for modern Britain. If our athletes bomb, we will end up showcasing failure.

Achieving success

That is why UK Sport - the funding body which works with sports to try and achieve international success - together with the British Olympic Association have decreed that in 2012 Britain must come fourth in the medals table.

It is a big ask. The last time Britain did that well in an Olympic Games was 92 years ago at the 1928 Games in Paris. In fact when the Games was last in Britain we didn't come anywhere near the top of the table. At the London Games of 1948 we only managed twelfth place, bagging a meagre three gold.

But the Government has put its money where UK Sport's mouth is. The body has been awarded almost £600 million in lottery and government funding to prepare athletes for the Games. Indeed perhaps rather recklessly - given the country's results in the last few Games. UK Sport performance consultant Chelsea Warr, says that money will not be the problem in achieving its objective.

The big problem, according to Chelsea at UK Sport, is finding enough decent athletes to spend all that cash on. It is reckoned that one in ten thousand people has what it takes to be an Olympic-class athlete. The challenge is finding them.

Emulating Australia

There is an example which shows what can be done. Australia has plumbed depths of Olympic despair almost as profound as Britain.

Britain is now trying to emulate the Australian model and more than two dozen Australians are working at the top levels of British Sport

Back in 1978 it returned from the Montreal Games without a single gold medal. Its solitary silver and four bronzes placed it in 32nd place. Australia - always a nation with a keen interest in sport - was horrified and resolved it should never happen again.

The Aussies set up an institute of sport modelled on the former Eastern Bloc "athlete factories". Its sole aim was to spot and develop elite talent - though without the drugs, of course.

And it worked. At Athens in 2004 Australia produced 49 medallists, including 17 gold, which put it fourth in the medals table. With a population of 20 million that makes it arguably the best performing nation on Earth.

This is the model Britain is now trying to emulate. The first step was recruiting some of the Aussie's top talent. There are now more than two dozen Australians working at the top levels of British Sport - including Chelsea Warr at UK Sport.

Indeed so many of Australia's top spots coaches have defected to Britain that the Aussies are now talking about a sporting "brain drain".

Rowing for gold

The most advanced talent identification programme is in GB Rowing. No surprise that it is run by an Australian, Peter Shakespear. For most of its history rowing relied on athletes produced by those schools and universities which have strong traditions in the sport.

Not any more. Shakespear says he will test anyone who might have what it takes. And it seems to be working. About 100,000 people have been tested and the World Class Start programme now has seventy young athletes in training.

The qualities that make a good rower - height and strength - are relatively easy to spot. Talent identification is more of a challenge in other sports.

Take fencing. Top fencers can come in many shapes and sizes. Richard Kruse - who won Britain's first international medal for the sport in 40 years - was spotted by his coach in a supermarket shopping with his mum when he was 12.

What it takes

Could you emulate Britain's gold medal winning rowers?

So do you think you or someone you know has what it takes to make it all the way to an Olympic podium? If so, UK Sport wants to hear from you.

But first, a word to the wise. Olympic sport is - it should go without saying - elitist. The Olympics are about finding the very best athletes in the world. So it shouldn't be any surprise that UK Sport has a couple of guidelines for all you embryo Olympians out there.

1 - You must be between 15 and 25 years old.

2 - You must have a background in competitive sport to a minimum of county standard.

They are particularly interested to hear from people who've played "dynamic team ball sports" to a competitive level, but feel they may not quite meet the final pinnacle as an international player, and could transfer across to another 2012 team sport.

They are also keen to hear from people who are at a high level in one sport, and who would like to test their skills and abilities in another related sport - where the route to the top may be faster, and where greater opportunities for medal availability exist.

If that sounds like you then send them an email to: [e-mail]

But be warned, GB Rowing reckons it takes 10,000 hours of training to shape a promising athlete into an Olympian and even then there's no guarantee you'll win.

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Justin Rowlatt's film on Britain's quest for 2012 Olympic athletes will be shown at 2130GMT/2230BSTon Wednesday 23 August on BBC Two in the UK and on the Newsnight website.