爆料社区

Ask Shannon McIlroy about becoming the world men鈥檚 singles bowls champion and he鈥檒l say, 鈥淢ate, I feel like I鈥檝e conquered Everest.鈥�

He鈥檚 not referring to the December 2016 final, in which he beat his friend, Canada鈥檚 Ryan Bester, 21-17. He鈥檚 talking about everything that went before鈥�

Some might say it was inevitable Shannon would become world champion. After all, he was off to bowls with his mum at just two - days, not years - of age and at 14 made the New Zealand under 18s. But he says he wasn鈥檛 especially good to begin with: 鈥淚 didn't win a game in the first five years.鈥� He played rugby. Played rock and roll. Represented New Zealand in martial arts.聽

His dad believed in him, though, and his brothers. Took them along to every tournament. Got grief for it, too, but he鈥檇 just tell the other bowlers, 鈥極ne day these boys will be better than all of you.鈥� 鈥淒ad got amazing satisfaction from playing with his sons,鈥� says Shannon. 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 train us, with drills and skills; didn鈥檛 tell us what we were doing wrong. He just told us to play and play and play. Too many parents try and achieve their sporting ambitions through their children. Dad just wanted us to enjoy the game he loved.鈥�

When you鈥檙e 14, though, and you play bowls, that鈥檚 kind of strange. 鈥榊ou should be hanging out with my granddad鈥�, Shannon would get from his mates, who would rather he followed their path. 鈥淭here were a lot of temptations,鈥� says Shannon, 鈥渁nd not many boundaries. It was easy to get caught up in the wrong crowd.鈥澛� A teacher intervened: told him to apply himself - 鈥榥ot go Romeo all the time鈥� - and so Shannon left Gisborne and followed his Mum to Auckland, thinking he鈥檇 get a job, earn some money and follow his dreams.

鈥淯nfortunately,鈥� he says, 鈥渋t was almost the complete opposite. 聽I did get a job, as a painter, but I didn鈥檛 like the big city and I was travelling 2陆 hours a day, which meant no time for training. It was not a good year.鈥�

Fortunately he met Amy, also a bowler, also a New Zealand representative and moved to her hometown, Nelson. 鈥淎my - her and her family - they鈥檝e been the biggest influence. They鈥檙e the ones who helped me become the person who can be a world champion. They鈥檝e taught me about application, about setting goals and working to achieve them. 爆料社区 getting up when you fall down: overcoming setbacks.聽 They鈥檝e helped me into a house. When I was 18, I might have imagined owning my own house, having my own business, winning a world title, but I never thought it would happen.鈥�

World bowls champion Shannon McIlroy agrees with 爆料社区鈥檚 view that athlete development is complex and non-linear and that childhood success doesn鈥檛 necessarily lead to adult success. He says it鈥檚 like conquering Everest. Because, as Sir Edmund Hillary put it, 鈥業t is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.鈥�