Abbie Thorrington (British International Triathlete)

Before meeting Nino I was unsure whether my childhood dream of becoming an Olympic athlete would progress into adulthood. At the time I was competing both Nationally and Internationally at swimming, cycling and triathlon. Although I was physically fit through being very active, when it came to race day I suffered with stomach pains, and in some cases it resulted in a DNF due to the massive amount of pain I was in. My parents were always massively supportive and tried looking for ways to sort the stomach pains out, from seeing private specialists, speaking to different coaches and funding me to begin working with Nino. At the time we were unsure whether any of these methods would work, and we were still unsure whether the pains were due to nervousness or a physiological problem.

However if I am completely honest working with Nino over the course of around 3 years helped me massively, and the stomach pains started to go. Not only did Nino work on the physical aspects of training to get me fitter, but also nutritional factors which are very important. However the greatest influence Nino had was to give me confidence in myself and my own ability. Still to this day I am unsure how he did this, but I feel that if my parents would not have funded me to work with Nino my sporting aspirations could have turned out very differently.

As for today I am currently training, and am funded by UK Sport as a full time triathlete at the National High Performance Centre for triathlon in Loughborough. Since working with Nino I went on and continue to be a regular GB international athlete, competing on a European and World stage. My ultimate aim is to achieve 2012 Olympic selection and become an Olympic Champion.

Abbie Thorrington (Official EIS World Class Athlete & GB International)