Jon Wilkin column

By Jon Wilkin
St Helens and England forward

With the Olympics just about to start, my thoughts always drift towards the athletes who are going to be competing.

It baffles me how they can put four years of training in for one competition, They place all their emphasis on being in peak mental and physical condition for those few moments which count.

You keep focussed in the days, hours, minutes and seconds that you hope will lead you to your dream of an Olympic final - and then in the warm-up your hamstring tightens or you feel an aggressive bout of diarrhoea - the most disruptive illness I could think of - coming on.

Paula Radcliffe suffered Olympic heartbreak in Athens in 2004

So what happens then? You must feel like sitting down and crying and/or laughing.

It's Sod's law that you prepare perfectly and, come the day of your event, it's tragedy.

Rugby league is very different. We prepare for a weekly event so the implications of not getting things right are generally less serious than for an Olympian.

Thankfully, we usually have the chance to compete again the following week although sometimes it feels as though a four-year gap could just about allow our more elderly players to recover!

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I only really get caught up in the Olympics once the athletics kicks off.

I am a class act at track and field on the PlayStation and my technique of using a nylon t-shirt over my fingers to rapidly rub across the buttons has led to a series of world records, including a sub nine-second 100m time (although Paul Wellens may dispute this fact).

Even Usain Bolt might struggle to get down the track that quickly.

But I love athletics and I have particular respect for the long-distance runners.

Imagine being told you have to train to run around a track for 10,000m. There is only one way to get good at that and it is running 10,000m around a track as many times and as fast as possible - now that is boring!

Nick Fozzard strikes a pose on the pitch

It does make me grateful for how varied rugby is. Two matches are never the same and two days' training are never the same - unless you stand next to Nick Fozzard and experience his repetitive style.

He has a particular brand of humour which involves rude daubings on the physio room door and also takes in screaming and groaning during speed sessions, topless sculpting in the gym, like some weird guy on an American beach, and endless tensing of muscles.

Despite having the energy to do all these things, he will finally declare that he is tired and, just to help team morale, ask 'is anyone else tired?'

Of course, we never rise to Nick's attempts to test our mental strength and we love his sense of humour!

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It seems strange that we are back at Wembley again later this month for another Challenge Cup final.

I cannot wait for the game and the next few weeks are going to be great preparation for the final.

Finals are always very intense and ruthless games so it is important for us to act in that way over the next two games.

Following a win over Leeds last week, Warrington will be in a buoyant mood and will be a great test for us in what could potentially be a very entertaining match.

They have a lot of good players who are hitting some form just at the right time for the Super League competition run-in but we are not in too bad shape ourselves following another victory over Wakefield.