Cuan Walker chats to Hollywood Athletics Club's Elite Team Manager, Manfred Seidler, to find out how exactly what goes into managing one of the country's best elite outfits.
We see the glitz and glamour when new elite athletes are announced and welcomed into elite group of the Hollywood Athletics Club. We see them atop of podiums around the country and winning some of the biggest races on the calendar, such as the Soweto Marathon.
But how do these athletes appear on the team’s radar? What goes into attracting the continent’s best and what goes into managing these superstars? We chat to Hollywood Athletics Club Elite Team Manager, Manfred Seidler to find out.
Having been involved in the running world for over three decades, primarily in the media industry where he attended multiple World Championships and four Olympic Games, managed and produced athletics tv shows, events while also commentating, Seidler knows a thing or two about the sport, and back in 2022 when the club contacted him with an offer to grow the elite team and manage athletes, he took the opportunity with both hands and has not looked back since.
“It was actually very, very surprised, itsurprised, it was simply not something I had on my radar even though I have always had the idea of managing elite athletes,” recalls Seidler. “It was a very exciting prospect, and I am very, very grateful to Greg Glossop and Morgan Shandu, who approached me back then.” Going into the role officially in January 2023, and signing multiple national title holder and Olympian Irvette van Zyl at the same time, two years has passed in a blink of an eye and today, the Hollywood Athletics Club is home to some of the continent’s biggest superstars, including the likes of Olympians Stephen Mokoka, Gerda Steyn, Cian Oldknow, Neheng Khatala, Rutendo Nyahora and Joseph Seutloali, alongside the talented Tayla Kavanagh and Nkosikhona Mhlwakana, a two time Two Oceans Marathon podium finisher.
So, what does a normal day in the life of an elite athlete manager look like? “There is no such thing as a normal day,” laughs Seidler. “The last month and first month of the year are always busiest because you plan for the year ahead, and you sign up the athletes that you believe share the same vision as the club. With the big events there is so much that goes into them. Race entries, media obligations, travel, hotels, seconding teams, planning, it takes a lot.”
Whilst elite athletes have one thing in common, and that is to run fast, they all have different needs, and it is an art of understanding what those needs are and how to go about them.
“An ultra-athlete will have very different needs to somebody who focuses on the 10k or even the marathon, and you must cater to those needs for everyone. We look at, for example, just things like nutrition: the harder you go, the further you go, the more you need nutrition. A 10k runner will not have the same requirements as that of an ultra-runner. And whilst I know this, and all of us in the industry know this, there’s no formula; every athlete is different and every athlete has different needs. Even if you have three ultra-runners, the one thrives on going further than the other and so on,” said Seidler.
Besides working with the elites, Seidler also sits on the organizing committee for the Hollywoodbets 10km races, with the Johannesburg edition of the event joining Durban last year. “That has been really great to be involved with,” Seidler says. “Finding venues, securing venues, looking after the route, making sure we find a good route, managing the technical side and looking after the elite entries, both from our club as well as those athletes that we invite.”
Now one of the biggest running clubs in the country, the Hollywood Athletics Club Elite stable has grown a lot over the past two years and is set to continue on that path. “It is a known fact that Hollywoodbets, our sponsor, without whom we couldn’t do any of this, and the club are bullish in that the club would like to be, as well as the sponsor, be very much on the forefront of road running in South Africa.”
“Like every other club, we want to be very visible and we want to dominate. We’re looking for podiums, and that is from, you know, from a 5k all the way up to Comrades and in order to do that, we constantly need to look at which athletes we have and which athletes we need to add to the team. Within five years, preferably even earlier, in the next three years perhaps, the Hollywood Athletics Club and Hollywoodbets would like to be the most dominant club in the country.”
One thing that Seidler reiterates is that it takes a village so to speak to have a successful elite team. “The people that I work with, athletes and team members of the club, are all very hard working, very accommodating and very passionate about what they do and it’s a great environment to be in and all combined makes it the success that it is.”
