Bill Furniss knows all about Olympic success. Under his guidance Rebecca Adlington became Britain’s most successful Olympic swimmer in a century, striking double gold in Beijing and double bronze four years later in London.
Now he’s looking for more medals in Rio with a much bigger brief as British Swimming’s head coach.
Furniss looked almost looked relieved after finally confirming the
for this summer’s Games, the speculation of last week’s trials in Glasgow can now stop and the focus can switch to training and delivery, two things he’s proved he does best.
Four years ago the Olympic swim team was 38 strong but Furniss and performance director Chris Spice like their ‘lean and mean’ approach and claim no-one is making it up the numbers, with world champions Adam Peaty and James Guy backing the small and focussed strategy.
“We don’t talk about medals, we talk about delivering season best performances or even lifetime bests, when it counts on the day,” said Furniss, a strategy that always served him well with his star charge Adlington.
“If we can get a high percentage of our team doing that, then the medals will come. Anything can happen at an Olympics and it is on the night in Rio. Chris and I have said from the beginning that it is not about the trials.
"The trials are the first step on the ladder. In the past we have had very good trials and then struggled when it counts. This time we have been pleased with our trials but our focus is very much on Rio.
"The one thing we have done a lot of work on is belief. You have got to have that absolute certainty of belief before you can do anything.
"UK Sport set a medal target for each sport. I don't discuss it with the athletes, I don't discuss it with the coaches and I am not going to discuss it with the media.
“Every athlete on this team, if they get it right, is within two per cent of getting on to the podium right now. Some events will move on but we have put a lot of time and effort into how we select our team that gives us the most chance of securing medals. That’s what it is all about.”
Spice - part of the Team GB basketball set-up four years ago - also makes no apology for setting high standards, as the team look to improve on London 2012, where a silver for Michael Jamieson and Adlington's double bronze were the only swimming medals.
“Only 20 percent of our team swam season’s bests in London, we aren’t going to win much if we do that again,” he said.
“At last year’s World Championships that number was 60 percent and if we can repeat that we’ll be in a good place.
“We didn’t set the selection criteria in 2013 and the team picked itself and we had a lot of people making up the numbers. We agreed that we were never going to do that again.
“If anyone makes the team when we are in charge they are going to deserve it and we have been true to our word.
"We have got to make sure that people understand that if you make this team then you are in the running for an Olympic medal. That is a significant shift from where we were a couple of years ago.”
Sportbeat 2016