lunch-time talk by Ronnie Delaney

rdunne

I was asked to pass this on.
RD

"To mark Dublin's term as European City of Sport 2010, the following lunch-time talk has been arranged as a City Hall Lecture:

Speaker: Ronnie Delany: Olympic Champion and Honorary Freeman of the City of Dublin
Topic: From Dublin to Melbourne and Home Again: My Olympic Journey
Date: Tuesday 20 April 2010
Time: 1.10 p.m. to 1.50 p.m.
Venue: City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2
ADMISSION FREE: ALL WELCOME

christeb

Excellent - do you need to register?

RoyMcC

I'd be first in the queue if I was still in Dublin. As well as being a legend Ronnie is a great bloke and a good speaker. Hope he gets a good turnout.

rdunne

christeb wrote: »

Excellent - do you need to register?

dont think so. I got a mail from a girl called Ellen Murphy in DCC
pop her a mail ellen.murphy@dublincity.ie

christeb

Just back from this, superb. Would have liked to stay and ask a question or two, seemingly he stopped running completely at 26...

RoyMcC

christeb wrote: »

Just back from this, superb. Would have liked to stay and ask a question or two, seemingly he stopped running completely at 26...

I thought he was a bit older than that, but he should know. He really burnt himself out and got injured beyond recovery running on the boards in the US and Europe in the summers.

christeb

RoyMcC wrote: »

I thought he was a bit older than that, but he should know. He really burnt himself out and got injured beyond recovery running on the boards in the US and Europe in the summers.

He must have, I would have liked to hang around to ask hm about that. 40 wins in a row isn't good for your health seemingly!

He was refreshingly immodest too, not something you hear too often

aero2k

rdunne, thanks for the thread, I managed to get there today and it was a real privilege to hear Ronnie speak.
I agree with christeb about the refreshingly immodest part, though I think that shows our Irish perspective - in the US this manner of speaking would seem very self-effacing compared to what you experience in ordinary work and social situations from people who don't have the olympic gold medal or equivalent to back up the big talk.

A few things I took away from the talk:

• He seemed convinced he was going to win, both in his preparation and in the race itself. Even with 150m to go, and 4 or 5 runners ahead of him, although running flat out there was no sense of desparation in the way he was running.

• He mentioned the amount of time he spent at sports as a kid, and threw in a "no television in those days" sort of remark. He also drew parallels between the current generation of Kenyan kids running to school and the races home he had with his older brother. I would have liked to ask him if he thought modern kids are a bit soft, but all the questions tended towards nostalgia rather than athletics.

• He had tremenduous maturity in recognising his talent at 19, then making the hard decisions he needed to in order to make the most of that talent.

• He spoke about losing, and how you can learn more from losing than winning, once you take the time to work out what went wrong, and take the steps to put it right.

rdunne

I went myself. Very good.
Never knew that runners of that time stopped so early! 26-27 years of age seems very young to retire.

gerard65

rdunne wrote: »

I went myself. Very good.
Never knew that runners of that time stopped so early! 26-27 years of age seems very young to retire.

I don't think it was unusual back then. I think many ran until they finished college and then it was time for a 'real job', remember they were 100% amature. Roger Bannister retired in his early 20's to continue his medical studies.. Even in the 60's and 70's a footballer over 30 was 'old'. Advances in injury treatment and coaching knowledge has prolonged careers.