UNI Attracts World-Class Coaches to Create Next Olympian

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – UNI is bringing international coaching legend Christos Iakovou (CRIS-tows YEE-a-cove-oh) to campus in an effort to educate and help the Midwest develop the next Olympian.

"It's an Olympic summer and in the spirit of the Olympics, you have one of the great minds ever in Olympic sports," said Jed Smith, instructor and assistant director of strength and conditioning.

"As far as history goes, it doesn't get any better than what we have here at UNI. Plus the information of how to develop world-class athletes, the sports psychology component, you name it, it's all here. It's a very special event."

Iakovou is responsible for 64 medalists in power lifting from 1989-2007 (as a coach in world championships and other national and international competition). He also is responsible for an additional 13 Olympic medals.

He trained two track and field medalists in the 2000 Olympics: Konstantinos Kenteris, who took gold in the 200-meter dash, and Ekaterini Thanou, who took sliver in the 100-meter dash. He also helped train Voula Patoulidou, who took gold in the 100-meter hurdles at the 1992 Olympic Games.

Through the connections of graduate student Panayiotis Papadopoulos, UNI secured Iakovou for a weekend clinic that starts tonight.

He plans to begin with his story and explain how the programming develops.

"I am the type of coach who gives everything out," said Iakovou. "I don't keep secrets from others. I don't keep anything to myself. I want to provide everything for everybody out there. And if they are good and smart, coaches can add their own knowledge on top of that and maybe even create something better."

A lot of that programming will include the psychology of sports. He said he believed in himself and then convinced his own athletes to do the same.

"There are no secrets in sports," he said. "Whoever works hard and believes in themselves, they will succeed. If the new, upcoming coaches do not realize it's not just about programming, there's all these other factors that contribute to create a great athlete, an Olympian, then they won't be able to succeed. It's all together."

Teamwork is also something he plans to emphasize.

"It's also of paramount importance to make good choices and choose the right people to be around you," he said. "Because as the captain of a ship, you have full responsibility about everything, good things and bad things, so it's very important to have the right people around you to assist you and believe in them. Without cooperation and collaboration, you have no results."

Outside of powerlifting, he primarily has worked with track and field and swimming athletes. He has worked with basketball teams and other sports. He focused on assisting coaches so the coaches could work with their athletes.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCES AT UNI
This weekend's clinic starts with tonight's classroom session and concludes tomorrow with demonstrations in UNI's weight room. Iakovou flew here directly to work solely with UNI.

"I am very pleased and thankful to be able to have this opportunity to present in the United States after being away for 11 years," Iakovou said.

His trip was made possible in part with corporate partner Jeff Conner, who is the founder of Power Lift, based in Jefferson, Iowa.

"It trickles down to all our student-athletes," said Smith. "It's world-class knowledge from sports psychology to the actual X's and O's of how you design programs and training models. It's very, very high level. So it will help all of our athletes. But on the education side, we have a lot of graduate students who want to be professionals in the strength and conditioning industry, so this is invaluable. This is amazing to be able to get this information."

UNI's strength coaches will attend as well as some sport coaches. The clinic targeted Midwest coaches at the high school and collegiate level.

"We do a lot of clinics and bring in different world-class minds. This is what we do," said Smith. "I have been here since 2005, and by far education-wise, this year is the best. It's been amazing."

This is the fifth clinic UNI has hosted this year that as part of an ongoing project to bring in new information by attracting international and high-level speakers and presenters.

Smith teaches in the college of education, but he is part of the Panther athletics department. By having a hand in both, he is able to support multiple missions on the UNI campus.

"Our students learn, but then it trickles down to our student-athletes," said Smith. "And our athletes' programming continues to evolve and get better and better. So we can win on the athletic courts, fields and pools, but then we win on the education-side where our students come out of UNI with a much higher level of education that they would get anywhere else. And that's the beauty of what we are trying to do."

A LEGEND BEGINS
Iakovou was introduced to a lot of sports as child in hopes of keeping him out of trouble. His father turned to track and field and swimming as ways to keep him active and release the extra energy he had. However, none of these interested Iakovou much.

Instead, Iakovou started to make his own weights and lift in his backyard. His father took notice and pushed him along by hiring a coach to introduce him to powerlifting. Iakovou also read what he could about Olympic weightlifting, which sparked his inspiration to be an Olympian.

"And that became my life," Iakovou said with a laugh.

His experience spans more than 40 years starting with training as a child in 1962 and extends into his days a professional athlete and eventually as a coach. In 1989, Iakovou took over as head coach of the national Greek weightlifting team and helped the other Olympic sports in strength and power development.

"I have learned from the best coaches in the world as an athlete and then as a coach. I am very fortunate and very lucky to have met these coaches," he said Iakovou. "Those people are who helped me become who I am."

His coaching career was bright until a banned substance case against him arose just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The athletes who trained under him were accused of using banned substances. International courts have exonerated him of the accusations after finding a mistake that occurred in a Chinese factory that produced products Iakovou used in training.

It was a huge blemish on his career, but he said he was more upset for those athletes who had been preparing since they were 8 and 10 years old for the opportunity to win medals and championships.

"Their careers were seized and pretty much over because of that," he said. "Doping does exist in the world of sports, but we tried our best, and we remained clean. In fact, in that year we went through 102 doping tests and all of them came out clean until the final one two months before the Olympics. That one did the damage because of a mistake from a factory in China that produced that."

Iakovou continues to present and educate worldwide, but most of his work is done in Europe.

Calendar

Upcoming Events