Gerd Kanter part two: The story behind my book
In the second and final part of our feature focusing on Olympic discus champion Gerd Kanter, spikesmag.com speaks to the charismatic Estonian
about his new book "15 steps to winning"...
So, Gerd, how long did it take for you to write the book?
GK: From October to the end of January. But most of the technical work and ideas were ready much earlier – back in the spring of 2001, when my personal record was 57m. Raul Rebane, my manager, asked me to write down the principles that I followed to later become the world and Olympic champion. Back then I was crazy enough to say to him that I will win the discus in 2008. Raul didn’t laugh but said, “If you want it, there is a lot of work to do!” I wrote down these principles, which became our “10 commandments”, and I have followed them throughout my career. My life has changed since. The basics are the same but many things have changed.
How did you find the time to write the book with your other training demands?
GK: Actually, my part was mainly story telling, sometimes even via Skype. Raul wrote it down, then we argued and made corrections. In this period I had a lot of school presentations and I found the kids questions and proposals very useful.
So, what are your 15 rules of life?
GK: These are the first 10 rules, which may seem a little funny, but there are more in the book.
1. Learning is more important than training
2. If you do train, train consistently
3. If you do train – train
4. Enjoy the training
5. Do not be afraid to lose
6. Listen to your coach
7. Do many fields of sports when young
8. Eat healthily
9. Establish objectives, dream of great results
10. Do not hope for miracles, achieve your results honestly
When did you start to live by your 15 rules?
GK: Actually, I never thought, I have to follow something - I just did it. Training is a normal part of life, like in every job, work time is work time – every Estonian knows understands this.
Later I started to see that a lot of kids have difficulty following even simple rules, like eating healthily. In my childhood, in one way, I was lucky – we never had money to buy modern sweet stuff so my food was simple village food and I enjoyed it. But now I see kids eating without any rules and eating very bad things. Then they have problems with their weight and health.
My coach Vesteinn Hafsteinsson said that to be a good sportsman you need to master four elements that are all of equal importance – training, eating, sleeping and resting. So you see, its not enough to train hard, if you eat junk or don’t rest enough then this is going to have a detrimental effect.
***Read part one of the story here***
You can buy the book here.
If you liked this spikesmag.com feature then you'll enjoy these ones, too:
The story behind my book – Gerd Kanter: Part One
The underdog who overcame the odds – Priscilla Lopes-Schliep
From chasing buses to chasing dreams – Jeffrey Lawal Balogun