{"id":9121,"date":"2021-09-14T17:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T17:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=report&p=9121"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:14:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:14:23","slug":"finding-fulfilment-beyond-winning-medals","status":"publish","type":"report","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/finding-fulfilment-beyond-winning-medals\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Fulfilment Beyond Winning Medals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 14 Sep 2021 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Reports<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Finding Fulfilment Beyond Winning Medals<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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Paula Dunn won a fair share of sprint medals during her career but would struggle to tell you exactly when and where.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember how many medals I won in championships,\u201d says Dunn, who has served as the Head Coach of the Paralympic Programme at British Athletics since 2012. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s not about medals. They don\u2019t give you personal satisfaction. If you\u2019re not enough without the medals, you\u2019re not going to be enough with the medals.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, Dunn claimed five Commonwealth medals, including gold in the 4x100m in Edinburgh in 1986 and also claimed a bronze medal at the European Championships in 1990 in Split. As a coach, she has overseen successful Paralympic Games for Great Britain in Rio and Tokyo and spoke to the Leaders Performance Institute on the eve of the recent Paralympics about her leadership style and how she tries to give athletes, coaches and practitioners a platform to succeed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember the medals but I remember all the good things that happened and the memories and friends that I made. It is important to know your \u2018why\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, we examine Dunn\u2019s need for a \u2018why\u2019 her approach to supporting athletes beyond the track and field.<\/p>\n

What do you mean by your \u2018why\u2019? Is it linked to the question of personal fulfilment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PD:<\/strong> Absolutely. It\u2019s way bigger than winning medals. I did a team talk a couple of years ago and I said to the athletes: \u2018for true fulfilment, you need to know why you do something, so what\u2019s your \u201cwhy\u201d? because if you think medals are going to give you happiness, they\u2019re not. You need to know why we do things because we are going to fail at what we do.\u2019 You need to understand the reason why you do things because if you know your \u201cwhy\u201d, if things aren\u2019t going right, you know where you need to keep working and it will turn. I want to make really good memories so that when I\u2019m old I can sit there and tell my grandchildren. I do it because the memories that I\u2019m making are going to be lifelong memories. Therefore, when it gets tough, which is normal, you know why you\u2019re doing it because it gets you through those hard times; \u2018do you remember when I went to this championship and this happened?\u2019 or \u2018this athlete didn\u2019t win a medal but performed amazingly\u2019 or I remember when someone wrote me a lovely email to thank me for what I\u2019d done for them. All the memories I\u2019d attached to it as opposed to medals, PBs or season\u2019s bests. There\u2019s only three medals ultimately so the majority of people are going to be disappointed when we come back from Tokyo if they\u2019re basing it on their medal success. Just getting selected could be enough for somebody. Just knowing why you do things because that will keep you going when you\u2019re going through dark days.<\/p>\n

How do you look to support your athletes in their extracurricular activities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PD:<\/strong> It sounds harsh, but the only thing I can guarantee when you come off the programme is that you\u2019re going to come off it. It might be two years, it might be ten years, but ultimately you\u2019re going to come off the programme and the majority of your life is ahead of you. With athletes, we\u2019re always trying to make sure they have a Plan B; that they\u2019ve got a plan for what they\u2019re going to do post-retirement. And I think it comes back to my own time. We weren\u2019t paid when I was competing so we always had to have a dual career. When I went to world championships I got time off work, so work for me was important and it gave you a view of life. Life as an athlete, you\u2019re very much in a bit of a bubble and it\u2019s not a reflection of true life but you know in a workplace, when you have to turn up and you have to do things that you don\u2019t really want to, that\u2019s what people have to do. A lot of our guys have done courses or they\u2019re doing coaching qualifications. That\u2019s really important because the only guarantee anybody has is that they\u2019re going to retire. They\u2019re going to come onto the programme, they\u2019re going to have lots of highs, hopefully, then they\u2019ll go through a lull, they\u2019ll either be left off a programme or they\u2019ll retire. You need to know what you\u2019re going to do post-athletics career.<\/p>\n

What are some of the talent development challenges you face and perhaps some of the learning opportunities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PD:<\/strong> I think for us in para-athletics the athletes have become very young. It\u2019s not unusual to find athletes at 14 or 15 years old and get them ready for a World Championships or a Paralympic Games. What I\u2019ve learned over the last ten years is actually age and talent don\u2019t equal experience. They\u2019re still developing. So even though they\u2019re still posting performances that are world class, they\u2019re still young people and they\u2019re still trying to find their own identity. For me, it\u2019s making sure you develop the entirety of young, developing people. Anyone who remembers being a teenager knows you\u2019re going to make mistakes because that\u2019s what you do as a teenager. New people are coming into programmes and it\u2019s about managing their expectations and saying to athletes \u2018you\u2019re going to get beat, but that\u2019s fine because that\u2019s part of healthy competition, but then we need to make sure you\u2019re robust enough to manage that and then keep working harder\u2019. You don\u2019t lose your talent, your talent is there, but it\u2019s making sure we keep them in the right mindset to keep developing.<\/p>\n

Are the dynamics of \u2018what it takes to win\u2019 different in para-sport?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PD:<\/strong> There\u2019s so many factors at play when you say \u2018what it takes to win\u2019; you\u2019ve got your physical robustness, your mental robustness, all your inputs that can give you those gains. There is something to say about what it does take to win. We know there\u2019s some events where it doesn\u2019t matter what we do, the likelihood of winning the medal is quite remote because the physical times and distances that people are running and your standing point means that to get to the podium is really unlikely. But rather than what it takes to win, we ask: \u2018what can we do to make you the best version of you?\u2019 The person in front of me is a unique person; I\u2019ll ask them: \u2018what can we do to help you close the gaps to the medals? Or if you\u2019re the best in the world, what can we do to ensure you keep going forward?\u2019<\/p>\n

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Download Performance 23<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our latest Performance journal has landed, with Gareth Southgate, Head Coach of the England men’s football team<\/strong> leading the way with his reflections on defining and developing resilience. Elsewhere we spoke to the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/strong> of Major League Baseball, as well as the world-renowned New Zealand Rugby<\/strong>, and British Wheelchair Basketball<\/strong>, who runs some of the finest programmes in the sport. Edd Vahid of Premier League club Southampton FC<\/strong> also penned a column focusing on talent pathways.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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