We live in an age where if a person doesn’t know how to do something, all they have to do is Google it or look up a tutorial on YouTube and voila, they’re an instant expert!
You would think that there are limits to how far a YouTube education can get you, but apparently, even Olympians have resorted to watching YouTube videos to improve their performance.
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Enter Julius Yego, a 27-year-old athlete that is now a World Champion and planning on doing even better going forward. What’s Yego’s sport of choice? “I have passion for javelin throw, I think somewhere in my blood is written javelin,” Yego shared with reporters.
Julius Yego’s Inspiring Story
In his school years, Yego was a natural with the javelin. He set many records and had dreams of competing, but a lack of financial resources stood between him and his goals. Yego qualified for the World Junior Championships in Poland, but sadly, he was unable to attend and compete due to a lack of funds.
Yego shared that it was so frustrating being unable to attend the Championships in Poland because he “had worked so hard,” and he commented that it was one of the biggest regrets of his life.
Despite disappointments, Yego remained undeterred in reaching his goals. Coaching was expensive, but watching some of the best javelin throwers in the world on YouTube was completely free.
“First time I was in YouTube is 2009 when I was now getting serious about training and I didn’t have a coach,” he related. “Nobody was there for me to see if I was doing well or not, so I went to the cyber cafe.”
Coach Of The Year: YouTube
Yego couldn’t literally train with the greats, so instead, he simply studied their work and their training and then constructed his own training regimen.
Apparently, studying an Olympic sport on YouTube pays off! Yego became the first Kenyan ever to win a title in a field event when he competed at the All Africa Games in 2011. Of course, reporters were fascinated in learning about the secret to Yego’s success. They requested interviews with his coach, but little did they know, his coach could not be interviewed because he didn’t have one!
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“They wanted to interview my coach to know what I did before the competitions, the championships. By then seriously I didn’t have a coach. I didn’t go with a coach,” he said. “Then they asked me, ‘Who is your coach,’ and then I told them, ‘YouTube.'”
Looking Forward To Rio
As Yego continues to prepare for the Olympic Games in Rio, he has reason to be very confident. He finished first in the African Championships in 2014 as well as the 2015 World Championships. He’s come a long way from finishing 12th at the 2012 Olympics!
When asked if he’s changed his coach, he replied, “For me, the main challenge is training without a coach most of my time. The coach I am with is staying in Finland. I’m not able to pay for him to come and stay with me because that is so expensive.”
Despite numerous challenges, especially financial, Yego’s passion, dedication, and ingenuity have propelled him towards success. He would never undermine the value he acquired from his YouTube training, but he envisions a better future for his son.
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“He’s going to be very good, he said. “Maybe better than me. He will not struggle to have a coach.”