Being a Champion

With the hype and pressure of Olympic Games fame, do we expect too much of sportspersons? Glenis Lindley talks about (and to) a gold-medal winner regarding the price of fame and success.

It takes courage and a special person to overcome adversity, while it also takes a special person to become a top athlete or sportsperson.

Ian Thorpe’s now infamous “flop” in the Olympic Games trials and the controversy that followed are already history—water under the bridge—as the Australian and New Zealand athletes and swimmers take on the world in Athens.

However he personally will always remember his bitter disappointment, his frustration and his immense embarrassment as he slipped off the blocks, receiving automatic disqualification from his favourite event—and as title-holder of—the 400-m freestyle. In a second, he was denied the chance to defend his Olympic title, but, like the great sportsman he is, he accepted the decision with true professionalism, agreeing that “Oops!” quite summed it up. “You just have to get over it,” Thorpe later said.

Because of the intensity of competition and enormous pressures associated with sport at this level, there have been many “mistakes” or false starts in the past and “The Thorpedo’s” tumble won’t be the last heartbreak, nor the last sporting upset.

In Thorpe’s case, however, all wasn’t lost. The perceived injustice (just one of many over the years) was dispensed with when teammate Craig Stevens relinquished his spot in order to concentrate on his 1500-m event, letting Thorpe take his place. Stevens had been under tremendous pressure (but not from Thorpe), so after much soul-searching the anticipated announcement came . . . the toughest moment in Stevens’s life! When asked what he would do in a similar position Thorpe had said, “Do what my heart tells me.” But the saga didn’t end there, with suggestions that Stevens’s decision was more motivated by money than loyalty to one of his mates!

Putting this controversy to one side, spare a thought for Grant Hackett, another close friend and team-mate of Thorpe’s. Since Hackett took over from Kieren Perkins as the champion long-distance swimmer, he’s largely been rated second to Thorpe, and lived in his shadow as an Australian swimming hero and swimming icon. But that matters little to the extraordinary Gold Coaster who has confidently set about becoming the world’s best 1500-m swimmer. His quest for supremacy began when as a15-year-old he finished fifth to Perkins at the 1996 Olympic trials. With relentless daily training and dedicated commitment since that day, he’s worked his way to the top of the 1500-m ladder, winning every major championship during that time.

Hackett is well on the way to achieving his ambition of being the world’s best, and recording the greatest winning streak in history.

While Thorpe was toppling into the pool, Hackett was fighting his own personal battle against a lingering chest infection and pneumonia. He was diagnosed with asthma and then developed a severe cough, which hindered his rigorous training routine, even necessitating a two-day stay in hospital. He has been on antibiotics. Thanks to his mental toughness, the world record holder overcame his fragile health with flying colours at the trials and is assured of his place in pet events.

Hackett, who confessed he is excessively committed to training and hates missing a session, reluctantly admitted he wasn’t indestructible. “Sometimes I need to slow down. It’s a fine line, and I have a tendency to step over it,” he said.

Coach and long-time mentor Denis Cotterell backs up “The Machine.” “I started training Grant as a seven-year-old hopeful. I could see his potential. He was extremely motivated; his determination came from within. Now, I sow the seeds: he does the work. When it’s time to race, I’m only the coach . . . he’s the gladiator.”

Good swimmers—and any aspiring sportsperson—must start with natural talent, but then follows self-discipline, settings goals, meeting personal challenges, all of which are obviously character-building and focusing on achievement.

Grant usually trains six days a week with around a dozen weekly swimming sessions, which begin at 5.30 am for several hours, and are repeated again in the afternoon when he churns through the pool, lap after lap, covering around 70 kilometres each week. Coupled with several hour-long gym sessions, running sessions and a surf or two—“just for fun”—it doesn’t leave much time for friends.

But he loves and accepts his rigorous routine, training when others are out having a good time. “It’s a simple sacrifice, if I want to be number one,” he says. However, he does make time for his girlfriend; he likes fast cars and belying his disciplined approach to his sport, Hackett has a friendly, sociable personality.

As a teenager, he always admired and respected former distance “king” Kieren Perkins and now, having inherited his crown, Hackett’s motivation is to continue to be number one and to continue to break his trademark 1500-m freestyle record. But he also aims to go one better. He wants to also achieve in sprints (200 m and 400 m). Could this be his biggest ambition—to beat his friend Ian Thorpe?

Typical of any elite athlete, he’s focused on the task at hand, which includes increasing his body strength and fitness and eating good quality, healthful foods, albeit in vast quantities. Like the majority of dedicated sporting stars, smoking and drinking are not part of the daily routine, but healthy bodies and minds are.

For top sporting personalities, winning is the ultimate measure. While sporting achievements and domination create personal satisfaction, still they seek perfection. Hackett (and numerous others) aren’t really interested in becoming “heroes.”

Swimming coach Don Talbot believes the “Thorpe factor” is both a blessing and a curse. The motivation to beat Thorpe over shorter distances keeps Hackett striving for a better performance while at the same time he increases his stranglehold on his major event, the 1500 m. Most of the hype and publicity surrounds Thorpe, while Hackett is content with his quiet pursuit of excellence and his long list of major achievements.

Watching Grant Hackett train, one develops a sense of admiration for all who are prepared to swim up and down in monotonous regularity looking at the bottom of the pool or at the sky, for kilometre after kilometre to achieve an ambition.

Every sportsperson can’t possibly be number-one, so it often becomes just as important to individuals to compete, as it is to win. However human nature being what it is, accepting defeat isn’t always easy. Sporting heroes are seen as role models, but not everyone who competes is an ambassador for the “good sportsman” concept either. Dealing with the pain and devastation of failure or disqualification has produced some amazing reactions over the years. Some cope using tears, and tantrums, others resort to violence. Reality sets in; in a moment everything they have worked toward amounts to nothing!

Looking back through recent history, there have been some enthralling and appalling moments. Sprinter Raylene Boyle still recalls her moment of anguish almost three decades ago when she was controversially disqualified. She stood trackside in tears—cheated initially by an official’s mistake. Sprinter Linford Christie threw a temper tantrum when disqualified after breaking twice in his 100-m final, while Ben Johnson brought shame to the sporting community with his drug disqualification.

Walker Jane Saville was disqualified from the Sydney Olympics when in sight of her dream and a gold medal. “No, no, no—not me,” she cried in disbelief, then turned around and headed away from the stadium.

Probably the worst display of bad sportsmanship, euphemistically termed “an excessive reaction,” came from American sprinter Jon Drummond in Paris after he allegedly broke. He lay sprawled on the track sobbing, then bellowing at officials. Like a child he turned to histrionics screaming, “I did not move! I did not move!” referring to the reason given for disqualification. And he didn’t. For almost an hour he stayed there, preventing the race restart. Fairness turned to farce, then farce became chaos—all in the name of sport!

This all pales into insignificance however with the scandal involving Tonya Harding’s unhealthy obsession with winning at all costs and the lengths to which she went to prevent arch rival, US national figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, from beating her during the Olympic trials a decade ago.

Although Harding did not commit the actual crime (her ex-husband and his henchmen clubbed Kerrigan on the knee), she pleaded guilty to hindering investigations. Effectively, both skating champions had their careers shattered.

Questions are raised: Has sport become too much about winning and not enough about competing? Is “sporting glory” more about glory than about sport?

The majority of elite athletes are committed beyond reproach and winning is their ultimate measure, their ultimate priority. If, however, everything in life takes second place, are we taking away the fun and are we taking ourselves a little too seriously? We must make the most of opportunities in life, but sadly, when the burning enthusiasm begins to wane and motivation is on the decline, it then becomes time to retire.

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