Phil Southerland wraps up training camp
28 July 2021
Phil Southerland, Team Novo Nordisk CEO and co-founder shares his thoughts after wrapping up the training camp in France. The camp took place from 21 – 26 July with the Talend ID camp, the team’s pipeline to discovering athletes with the dream of being professional one day joining the Pro and Devo teams.
For me, the Talent ID camps are the best thing we do. You get to see kids dreaming of being on the Pro team but more often than not, they’re always removed and only see the pros on the internet. For the first time ever, the Pro team, Devo team and Talent ID camps were joined as one.
To see the look in the eyes of the kids, saying “I want to be on that team bus someday, I want to race and have the same impact on people with diabetes and these athletes had on me.”
Seeing Sam Brand telling his story, Declan Irvine was there sharing his journey from Talent ID right up to the pro team. Quentin Valognes attended the first Talent ID camp ever and told the campers about what this family is about, a family that changes the world.
For me what was amazing was that every single camper was wearing a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) and every single camper was able to drop me on the flats. The level of the future athletes of Team Novo Nordisk is higher than it’s ever been before. That’s only happened from the journey the athletes that we’ve had have taken. They’ve taken the journey with a lot to overcome, with a lot of adversity, with a lot of doubt but because they’ve battled that doubt and adversity, they have inspired a generation of super people who happen to be great athletes who are motivated to achieve their goals to change the world.
It was an honor and a privilege and I’m already looking forward to getting back to camp next year.
