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| Homebush stadium, via Wikipedia |
The Sydney Olympic Games has been
for over a decade held as that event’s paragon. Those two weeks in the early Southern
spring brought together a truly elite swarm of athletes across all quadrennial disciplines;
Australia’s organization combined the pageantry of Brazil with the efficiency
of Germany. It has set the standard by which subsequent events will be
measured.
Every Games since has been dominated
by individuals, or more correctly, by Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. Phelps’
aquatic omnipresence has him at 18 gold medals, while
Bolt has taken a grand total of twelve races to utterly captivate
nearly seven billion people.
Australia’s Olympics, however,
had stars who promoted their sports without completely dominating them. This
egalitarianism spurred Cathy
Freeman’s defining moment amidst several images lasered into her nation’s sporting
consciousness. Also, the Australians owned the pool to such an extent that their
record medals count of 58 seems unlikely to be bettered.
The pool hasn’t seen such a
worldwide depth and spread of quality. The medals leaders include swimmers from
the Netherlands, Russia, the US and Australia – while the largest cheer of the
tournament came for Eric
the Eel of Equatorial Guinea. The green and gold also boasted two national
icons – Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.
Life has not been kind to this
pair, nor to Australian swimming, in the years since their retirement. Hackett
has led a highly-publicised life that may or may not involve drinking regularly
to excess; in his recent autobiography, Thorpe has admitted as such. Before
today, the most recent news concerning both saw them publicly tired and
emotional. The news filtering
through today that Thorpe is in intensive care and likely will never swim competitively
again must be heartbreaking for him and his fans.
They are two more former elite
athletes who have struggled without the structure provided by their training.
Like so many, they have defined themselves by their sport – not necessarily by results,
but by the process that helped them make the most of their natural ability.
That process has been found wanting because despite both men completing tertiary
education, in the years after fading glories they have been found relatively
unprepared for life as celebrities.
And Australia must take some of
the responsibility for their post-pool failure to thrive as well.
