Before he was a fresh-faced Olympian at the 2012 summer games in London, Adam Gemili was a Chelsea Academy trainee, running around the green grass of Cobham alongside the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Nathaniel Chalobah, and the one and only Josh McEachran. And running was certainly the operative word for young Adam, who would leave the Academy at age 15 in 2008 and, after spells at Reading and Dag & Red, decide to focus exclusively on athletics a few years later.
That certainly proved to be a solid
choice for the young man, who would go on to be European Champion in the 200m in 2014 and finish fourth in the same discipline at Rio 2016. He would miss out on the bronze medal by three-thousands(!) of a second: less than a literal blink of an eye.
But Gemili had admitted recently that football was his true love, and having made his retirement from athletics official yesterday, he is now focusing on helping young footballers. In fact, he’s started working with the Chelsea Academy as a part-time “speed coach” and mentor.
“Speed is a skill. And it can be coached.
“Working with the Chelsea academy boys on the track focusing on: Acceleration mechanics, Coordination & movement efficiency, Resisted sled work to develop real force production. Teaching them how to move faster, stronger and more efficiently. Building speed that transfers to the pitch.
“Very proud to support the development of young athletes at an elite level.”
-Adam Gemili; source: Instagram
Speaking to Sky Sports, Gemili added that he’s hoping to inspire the young generation with his own story as well, while giving them the physical and mental skills to succeed in the future.
“I’m just a normal guy from Dartford, we didn’t grow up with a lot. We just worked hard and I committed to my sport. I just hope one or two of them [the academy players] take some inspiration from that and say ‘you know what, it doesn’t matter if I can’t do it in this way, I’ll always find a way to be successful’.
“[…] It’s more brutal to be amongst [academy football] now, social media wasn’t a thing when I was growing up and now everything you do is online. Everyone can judge everyone, so the pressure, the performance, you’ve got to be on it.”
“Knowledge is power and if I’m able to teach these kids everything that I know, I can die happy. […] For a lot of these guys they won’t make it to the top level, they won’t make it to the top of the Premier League. But if I can teach them the skills that I got, one or two of them might even come into athletics, you never you never really know.”
-Adam Gemili; source: Sky Sports
Welcome back, Adam!
