Life-changing experience in less than 10 seconds

HOME AND AWAY RICKY SIMMS:IF RICKY Simms reckoned his athletes' agency business was already busy, then everything changed in the space of 9.69 seconds. For Simms, just like Usain Bolt, things were about to go crazy, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

Because if that hot steamy night in Beijing last August changed Bolt’s world, it changed the world of those around him too, particularly the 35-year-old from Millford in Donegal. It’s one thing to have some big stars on your books; it’s a whole other thing to have the biggest superstar on the planet.

“It’s been a busy time,” says Simms, with casual understatement. “Usain is getting far more attention than any athlete we’ve worked with so far, or I think any athlete that has existed so far. But he’s getting some brilliant opportunities, and that’s an exciting time for all of us.”

Fortunately, they have a close relationship, not just in the professional sense. In 2002, when Simms was first breaking into the business, he got a call from a colleague at the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. Some local teenager had just won the 200 metres, waving to the crowd as he sprinted down the straight, and it was put to Simms that perhaps they should sign the kid up. Two years later, when Bolt turned professional, he didn’t look beyond the Donegal man, mainly because of the friendship they had struck up. Together, they’ve have come a long way in a short time.

Nine years ago Simms was working at the NCTC in Limerick, coaching a handful of Irish athletes in his spare time. In trying to get them into races he encountered various agents, and figured he could do just as well. Through Ger Hartmann, the Limerick sports injury specialist, Simms got himself an internship with Kim McDonald’s agency in London, which represented most of the elite Kenyan runners, plus, for years, Sonia O’Sullivan.

He quickly learnt the ropes and when McDonald died suddenly in 2001, Simms took over as one of three new directors of the agency, which they renamed Pace Sports Management. They have around 100 athletes on their books, and Simms has been careful not to get too distracted by the Jamaican superstar.

“I’ve been with Usain for a long time, and we’d like to think all our other clients have the same service that they’ve always had. We’re just probably not recruiting as many new athletes as we’ve done in the past. If anything we’re reducing numbers. But the way the sport has gone, it’s more about having 10 big stars, than 100 small stars. It’s more difficult for the smaller stars to make a living from the sport, and therefore support our business, so you really need to be looking after the big stars.

“An athlete like Usain gets 10 requests a day for various promotional work so there’s a lot of PR involved, and dealing with the sponsors as well. It’s about trying to cut everyone the best deal, but I like to describe it as a club, like say Man United, because we look after all aspects of the athletes’ careers, especially the Kenyans, such as their coaching, financial planning, and other aspects of their lifestyle, on and off the track.”

Though based in London, it’s hard to even call that a home-from-home, as Simms spends so much time of the year on the road. So far this year he’s made several trips to Kenya, Jamaica, and the US – “and then the season begins”, he says.

“At this time of the year it’s mostly about setting up racing schedules. Everyone is trying to peak for the World Championships in Berlin, so we’re trying to work that for everyone. But we’d have athletes racing I’d say 50 weekends of the year. And someone from the office tends to go to most of those.

“Being based in London it’s easy enough to stop back during the various trips. During the summer it might be Paris on the Friday, Lausanne on the Tuesday, and Rome the following Friday, but I’d get home for a night in between. But it’s usually three different European cities in a week.”

Yet Simms points out that it’s far from a one-man show, and the Pace team includes his partner, Marion Steininger (“who is a lot better at this job than me”), and another Donegal native Gráinne O’Dea. But as if he wasn’t busy enough, he still finds time to coach several of his top distance runners.

“I would coach most of the Kenyan athletes we represent, like Vivian Cheruiyot and Micah Kogo, who just ran a world record for 10km on the road. We have other coaches on the ground in Kenya, but I would write up the training programmes, and watch over them as much as I can.

“It’s a part of the business I love to do, but unfortunately I’m finding it more and more difficult to put enough time into that. But the job is definitely not a nine-to-five.”

It’s no secret Bolt now demands up to €153,952 ($200,000) per race, and the expectations after his world records in Beijing are huge. “He’s in good nick. He’ll have a go at everything, but the big one is the World Championships.

“I’ve been working for years with the IAAF trying to find fresh ways to promote the sport, such as the new Diamond League. The sport needs that, to be back on television, because that’s where kids get their heroes and inspirations.”

Simms has a job a lot of people would probably kill for – “and [one that] would probably kill a lot of people,” he quickly adds. “For the last few years I’ve only gotten home for Christmas, unfortunately. My sister is getting married the week before the World Championships so I’ll have to go back for that. I’d love to get home more, but that’s the nature of the beast.

“The good thing is I call the family back in Millford, and they’re in their own world. I could tell then Usain Bolt’s leg fell off and that wouldn’t mean a thing. They’d be telling me the old cow is pregnant again. That keeps everything in perspective.”