Erki Nool (EST) - Sydney Olympic Decathlon champion (© Getty Images)
Once he enters the stadium, it can be seen in every single fibre of his body that Estonia’s Erki Nool wants nothing else but to win.
It is January and on the Spanish island of Lanzarote in the Atlantic the days are getting longer than anywhere in Europe. The Olympic year has just started and many European athletes have headed here for the sun.
The nice weather goes along with the relaxed atmosphere though the training has a serious purpose for Nool. This summer in Athens he will defend the Olympic Decathlon title, one of nine major international championship medals he has achieved in his career.
Change of technique
The 33 year-old Estonian trains together with Thomas Tebbich under the Austrian coach Josef Schmidl. It's a good team. They seem to have much fun together. Besides, Nool is always the one who laughs over and over again.
It is part of his nature that he is always in a good mood. Even last year when he pulled out of both the indoor and outdoor World Championship finals, after three events in both, he kept smiling.
In October, Nool also changed his technique in the Discus and is now helped by American Dave Wollman.
“Dave told me, ‘if 48 metres are enough for you, just keep on going like this. You´ve got to train hard though, but it might be possible. However, if you really want to get better we've got to change your technique’.” Nool’s answer was simple, “I really want to get better, so ok, lets change it.” He had nothing to lose.
In Estonia, Nool is already considered an immortal since his Olympic medal gold was Estonia’s first ever in track and field. Many schools even abandoned their classes when he competed in Sydney, so that the pupils could see the two-day competition on TV. After he had won the Olympics, he was greeted back home at the airport by large crowds.
Last big contest in Athens?
The Olympic Games in Athens might be the last big competition for the Estonian, who started his career as a pole vaulter and bettered his personal best Decathlon score (8815pts) in Edmonton to take the 2001 World championships silver medal.
The 1998 European champion and reigning continental silver medallist will be 34 on 25 June this year, and last year his hopes were shattered by injuries.
However, he smiles and says, “before Sydney I also thought that it was going to be my last Olympics. That way I could really motivate myself….Assuming that this (Athens) is going to be my last competition, I know that I have to give a hundred percent.”
Business and perhaps politics...
When Nool does finally retire he has enough to keep himself occupied. He runs an Athletic School, a sports shop and has a lot of other ideas. He is a businessman at heart.
In Estonia he has been asked to become a candidate for the European Parliament, which would fit in well with his European outlook. After all while he is patriotic, he also has an Austrian coach and a Bulgarian manager, Dimitr Jontschew, who lives in Germany.
Nool also speaks Estonian, Finnish, Russian and English but modestly when asked how many languages he knows, he replies: “Not so many!”
He is the fourth of six children but except for him, no one has excelled at athletics, and his parents were not into sports at all. “My youngest sister once tried it, but then she got problems with her ankles.” He has no idea where his talent came from.
A simple hard work philosophy
He is also a proud father with two sons - Robin, 5 and Oliver, 2 – and is convinced whatever sporting success is in the genes he has given them, that their own future success will come only from hard work. He is convinced of that.
That is the simple philosophy he learnt from former double Olympic Champion and 1983 World Champion Daley Thompson (GBR), who worked with him before Sydney.
Nool’s new coach, Josef Schmidl, is sometimes a bit worried when he sees him training without taking a break. At times he would like Nool to slow him down, although Schmidl - being only 32 years old himself - is someone who likes to push the limits as well, he’s a go-getter.
“Erki wants to win again. Sometimes I’m afraid he wants it too much,” says Schmidl.
Nool has the kind of ambition, the kind of hunger, that, once it grabs you, it won´t ever leave you.
“You know”, says Nool, “sport is so simple. There is no recipe for being successful. In the end the winner is the one who trained the hardest.”
Editors note -
Last weekend (7 - 8 Feb) in Tallinn, Estonia, at the annual Reval Hotels Cup indoor multi-events, an event which he also organises, Nool opened his year with an encouraging second place in the Heptathlon behind Czech Roman Sebrle (6350pts).
Nool - 6123pts (6.96-768-14.62-201-8.25-505-2:44.77).
