Is This 17-year-old Schoolboy Australia's Fittest Man?
The Age
Saturday July 12, 2003
His heart, and his body's efficient use of oxygen, indicates that Cooma schoolboy Ben Sim is a Phar Lap in the making.
Sim, 17, has become the Australian Institute of Sport's best performer on its gruelling treadmill test of fitness and endurance.
Sim was able to last 34 minutes and 30 seconds on the feared test that starts slowly but gets so fast that cushions surround the machine to protect athletes when they fall to the floor exhausted. The test is so tough that only a few elite endurance athletes who have done the institute's test in the past 22 years have been able to continue beyond 25 minutes.
Sim, a member of the NSW Institute of Sport, has been identified as an extraordinarily talented cross-country skier.
The AIS treadmill record was previously held by another cross-country skier, Olympian Anthony Evans, when he was 27.
In another endurance test, the Vo2 max test, Sim scored highly, but not as high as Australian cyclists Cadel Evans and Bradley McGee. Vo2 max tests show maximum levels of oxygen in the blood that can be used by working tissues. The higher the level the better.
AIS senior physiologist Dave Martin said he was stunned when Sim lasted on the treadmill so long, particularly given his age.
If Sim had been tested in Norway he would automatically be included in that country's elite ski squad, but in Australia, talent scouts from cycling and distance running are circling.
But Sim, coached by Russian-born Nick Almoukov, wants to stick to cross-country skiing, despite its highly technical nature and his lack of financial support. Earlier this year, Sim, the youngest competitor, finished 25th in the men's 30 kilometre freestyle event at the world junior championships in Sweden. At the open world championships in Italy, he was 66th in the 15 kilometre classic event.
Sim is now training five hours a day, which he fits in around his final year of schooling.
© 2003 The Age
