Countdown to Rio: Behind the scenes at Leeds Triathlon Centre
With the opening ceremony just hours away, Radio Aire has gone behind the scenes at the triathlon training centre in Leeds.
With just hours to go until the start of the Olympic Games in Rio, Radio Aire has been behind the scenes at the Leeds Triathlon Centre to see how our local heroes prepare for the biggest event on Earth.
Out of the six Team GB triathletes heading to Rio, five of them train in Leeds, including: Jonathan and Alistair Brownlee, Gordon Benson, Vicky Holland and Nom Stanford.
The Leeds Triathlon Centre is an initiative between the University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University and British Triathlon. It aims to provide a structured training and competition programme for athletes of all levels.
There has been a Triathlon Programme based in Leeds since October 2004. The Programme is built on a base of athletes that had been developed through a regional Talent ID and Development programme that had been running since 2001.
The weekly training programme involves a series of swims, runs and cycle rides in the Yorkshire Dales.
Sam Dickinson, 19, is currently training at the centre and often finds himself alongside his seniors who are heading off to Rio: "This is probably going to be the Olympics I feel the most connection to, in terms of actually seeing what goes on behind the scenes."
"This time I'm going to watch it with a different viewpoint. I'm going to see what they've been doing and I've seen when it's been bad and how they respond to that and how they get through it. Now watching them on the big stage is going to really inspire me to hopefully one day go on and do the same thing."
The centre has a number of coaches who help develop young athletes, like Sam. Liam O'Neill is the development coach at the world renowned training centre. Liam's tasked with finding the best under 18 triathletes in the country, attracting them to train at Leeds and then transfering them from a junior to senior level.
"When I first met Sam he didn't really know what triathlon was and he wasn't really performing at the highest of levels. I know over the last 2 years we've developed Sam into a European cup champion."