GB Olympian Adam Gemili returns to Chelsea as ‘speed coach’
Back to football!
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - AUGUST 16: Gold medalist Adam Gemili of Great Britain and Northern Ireland poses with his medal during the medal ceremony for the Men's 200 metres final during day five of the 22nd European Athletics Championships at Stadium Letzigrund on August 16, 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) | Getty Images 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.