BUILDING future Olympians and fostering junior talents - as coach of the Thai BMX team they have been two challenges for Adam Carey and over the past month they've gotten bigger.
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It is because the Bathurst coach is now having to work with athletes who are separated from him by 6,000 kilometres.
Following the UCI BMX World Cup rounds staged in Australia in February, Carey had headed back to Thailand with his squad.
One of his female riders had qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games while Carey wanted the rest of his squad to continue to build their skills and experience.
But then came the coronavirus pandemic. The three remaining rounds of the 2020 World Cup were cancelled, the Olympics were postponed, and Carey had to return to Bathurst.
"All foreign coaches have been sent home, so I'm having to coach via phone basically," he said.
"I was over there for about eight weeks then all of a sudden everyone said that all the borders are shutting and I had to get going, so I got back into Australia the start of April.
"The main priority has just been keeping the athletes as healthy as possible and I divided up the training equipment depending on what their weaknesses and stuff were, thinking I'd be back over there in June.
"That's not going to happen and I'm going to have to be getting a letter in August to see if I can go back because there will be some international racing towards the end of the year - October, November, December.
"In today's society we spend a lot of time on our phones, but that's sort of tripled for me. Like I'll wake up to messages.
"So yeah, it has been a bit of a challenge working out of Bathurst ... this has been the most extended period where I haven't been able to see the athletes face to face."
Though Carey has found things challenging as he spends more time on his phone and posts skills videos on Facebook as a way to keep his squad progressing, he feels the future could hold good things for Thailand's BMX squad.
Before he headed back to Australia, Carey had begun working with some of Thailand's younger riders. It is an important step towards future success for the national team.
"I was able to get a budget released for a junior development program over there, which is the first time Thailand has ever run anything like that," he said.
"We've got 14 to 16-year-olds and the top three, boy and girl out of the nation. So that was really cool, it was a lot of work and we had just got to week four when it all got shut down.
"It's really amazing, a lot of the older Thai athletes are stuck in their ways, but the young guys really pick up things a lot quicker, so it has been a really good experience."
While there naturally remains uncertainty over when racing will be able to resume, when he will be able to return to Thailand and how Olympic qualification will work, Carey's target remains the same.
He is aiming for Thailand to qualify as many riders as possible for the 2024 Olympic Games.
"Realistically for Thailand, it just depends on how they are doing the continent splits for the Olympics now. The IOC [International Olympic Committee] and the UCI [Union Cycliste Internationale] have recently talked about the rankings and continental adjustments," he said.
"So we had one female qualify for Tokyo from my understanding at the end of last year.
"But for me really, I have now started the whole 2024 plan with the guys. I have spent a significant amount of time talking to the guys over there and getting the whole ball rolling.
"A lot of the guys I am coaching are 19, 20, 21, so they're a lot younger than the guys that are going to be going to the [Tokyo] Olympics.
"It's just like a coming of age era, I am trying to blood the 17, 18, 19-year-olds I've got now and trying to get them them ready for the notion that they've got to be in the top 10 in the world by 2023 when the Olympic qualification program all starts."
Carey said once international travel restrictions ease he may bring his squad back to Bathurst for a training camp at its world-class track. But for now it's online videos and texting.
