Athens - The gold medal won by the Russian athlete Yelene Slesarenko over South Africa's Hestrie Cloete in the women's high jump is perhaps just more evidence that elite training groups will dominate the Olympic Games in future.
Slesarenko said after winning her medal that she formed part of a Russian training group coached in Moscow.
"I performed well in the group and now I've won the gold," she said.
Her compatriots, Anna Chicherova and Marina Kuptsova, were seen as the new stars until last year.
They are all 22 years old and they are going to make life difficult for Cloete in future.
Chicherova jumped 2.04m indoors last year and Kuptsova leaped 2.02m.
At that stage Slesarenko could clear only 1.98m, but it's clear that she excelled when she was included in the elite training group.
South Africa's swimmers - Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns and Ryk Neethling - who train together in Tucson, Arizona, can also be considered such an elite group.
Although they didn't follow the same training programme, they reminded one another daily of their aim - to win a gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay event.
The danger of such training groups is that one of the members may be injured or can't take the pressure.
If everyone can stand the pace, as was the case with the SA swimmers, it's possible to win a medal and set a world record like Schoeman, Ferns, Neethling and their relay partner, Darian Townsend.
South Africa's marathon team was prepared the same way for the Games in Atlanta in 1996.
The team-mates worked hard at a training camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Xolile Yawa was eventually injured.
It was hoped that Gert Thys would run a good time, but Josiah Thugwane was eventually crowned the new Olympic marathon champion.
The British athlete, Kelly Holmes, also showed marked improvement after she and Maria Mutola of Mozambique started training together.
Holmes eventually stepped out of Mutola's shadow and won Olympic gold in both the 800m and 1 500m events.
The same happened to swimmer Duje Draganja of Croatia. He was inspired by Gary Hall of the US who formed the "Race Club" to support top swimmers.
Hall won the gold in the 50m freestyle event and Draganja caused an upset by grabbing the silver away from Schoeman.
"I got used to swimming with Hall every day. When we swam in the finals, it felt like another training session and there was no pressure," Draganja said afterwards.
Pole-vaulting in the US was in the doldrums a few years ago.
Top pole-vaulters put their heads together and made plans to support one another so that someone could win a gold medal.
The results were clear in Athens - Tim Mack won gold and Toby Stevenson silver.
In South Africa Nick Bester prepared his elite Harmony Gold group for ultra-marathon glory in the Two Oceans and Comrades.
Hopefully more South African sportspeople will start to follow the example if they want to compete with success against the world's best.
