Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Wade Bootes, congratulations as Sam Willoughby’s coach on Sam’s award as AIS Junior Athlete
of the Year. How does it feel to be his coach and him win that award?
It’s definitely been a great six year process to get here and Sam’s an exceptional athlete
and very dedicated and committed so it’s great to work with Sam and actually giving
him that ownership of his own program working well and give him those tools around him,
his support crew, and the network that he now has within America is absolutely amazing.
When and how did you first discover Sam Willoughby?
Basically, with the Talent ID Program within BMX Australia so when he was fifteen years
old I came through the system back then as the TID Coach, which I was and moved through
the whole junior process and the focus was getting ready for the Olympics. And he was
just one of those exceptional, committed athletes which you can create into a superstar.
So what is he like to coach as an athlete?
Definitely, he is very good to work with as getting the right things that he wants and
getting the support people around him and you know it’s just been great to have a
great relationship there, it’s been a great working relationship over these years.
With BMX being part of the AIS, what is it like to have that support with the AIS?
Having that support network around us we’ve got a lot more people to tap into so it’s
a great feeling to be supported by the Australian Government now with the Australian Sports
Commission, the AIS and just within cycling itself and BMX Australia.
BMX has had a fantastic year and a lot of success with their athletes in 2012. What’s
the future for BMX in Australia do you think?
Really good! We have nearly four maybe five people racing internationally full time next
year so that’s really good and we’ve got a lot of junior people who really want to
be a part of it and we’re going to be working with them and also supporting the guys at
the top and 2016 looking really well.
Wade Bootes, thanks very much and give our congratulations to Sam.
Alright, cheers!