The Talent Lab

Book excerpt: Simon Timson and Chelsea Warr were the Performance Directors of UK Sport tasked with the outrageous objective of delivering even greater success to Team GB and Paralympic GB at Rio than in 2012. Something no other host nation had ever achieved. In The Talent Lab, Owen Slot brings unique access to Team GB's intelligence, sharing for the first time the incredible breakthroughs and insights they discovered that often extend way beyond sport. Using lessons from organisations as far afield as the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, the NFL Draft, the Royal College of Surgeons and the European Space Agency, it shows how talent can be discovered, created, shaped and sustained. Charting the success of the likes of Chris Hoy, Max Whitlock, Adam Peaty, Ed Clancy, Lizzy Yarnold, Dave Henson, Tom Daley, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Katherine Grainger, the Brownlee Brothers, The Talent Lab is the knowledge of just how it was done and how any team, business or individual might learn from it.