Who’s going to win “Gold, gold to Australia, gold!”
Columnist By Spiro Zavos, 7 Aug 2008 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- 1980s, Andrew Bogut, Cadel Evans, Eamon Sullivan, football, gold medal, Graham Arnold, Grant Hackett, Libby Trickett, Olympics, Sally Robbins, Socceroos, Stephanie Rice, Steve Hooker
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Norman May, born in 1928 and educated at Sydney Boys High School, coined the memorable call, “Gold, gold to Australia, gold!” when he described Australia’s win in the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay at the Moscow Games in 1980s.
With a voice that could be described (as with the great Winston McCarthy) of “the mating call of two pieces of sandpaper”, and a prodigious knowledge and passion of all the Olympic events, May is, in my opinion, the Don Bradman of Olympic commentators.
So which Australian athletes of teams are going to be immortalised with the famous Norman May cry of “Gold, gold to Australia, gold!?”
The likelihood is that some of the names that we don’t know about right now will become famous overnight, and some champions will disappoint.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s call is as good a place to start with the favourites and the not so favourites.
Football: Coach Graham Arnold is confident of a medal but the bookmakers have ranked the Socceroos 13th out of 16 teams.
Athletics: Medal hopes in the walkers, Jane Saville (desperately unlucky at Sydney in 2000), Luke Adams and Jared Tallent. Distance runner Craig Mottram and Steve Hooker, pole vaulter, are “our strongest winning hopes,” with the men’s 4x400m a medal chance.
Cycling: At Athens the cyclists won 49 medals, including 17 gold. Medal hopes in 2008 include Cadel Evans (if he competes) in the men’s road team, and also in the time trial. Sara Carrigan, an Olympic gold medalist, is a medal chance in the women’s road race. Gold medallist Anna Meares and Katie Mactier (recovering from a broken neck) are medal chances in the sprint and individual pursuit.
Shooting: Husband and wife Daniel Repacholi and Sue McCready are gold medal chances in the men’s pistol and women’s rifle.
Basketball: With the best female basketballer in the world in the team, the Opals are hoping to improve on their silver medal in Sydney. Even with Andrew Bogut (the $76 million man), the Boomers aren’t expected to win a medal.
Kayaking: Look to Clint Robinson in his fifth Olympics to add to his three medals.
Rowing: The men’s coxless pairs (where do they get these descriptions from?) and the women’s light-weight double sculls are picked to win gold. Australia will be represented in all fourteen rowing events. There is no Sally Robbins in the women’s eights, which increases their medal chances. And our own James Chapman is in the men’s eights to give us his fascinating insights into the Olympic experience.
Swimming: Eight world records were broken at the Australian Olympic trials, so there should be a hatful of medals in this side from Libby Trickett, Grant Hackett, Eamon Sullivan, Stephanie Rice, Jess Schipper, Leisel Jones, Cate Campbell, Emily Seebohm, and the relay teams.
Spiro Zavos, a founding writer on The Roar, was long time editorial writer on the Sydney Morning Herald, where he started a rugby column that has run for nearly 30 years. Spiro has written 12 books: fiction, biography, politics and histories of Australian, New Zealand, British and South African rugby. He is regarded as one of the foremost writers on rugby throughout the world.
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August 7th 2008 @ 9:01am
Harry said | August 7th 2008 @ 9:01am | Report comment
Err Spiro you are way out on the cyclists medal tally – was that (49) our total medal tally in Athens?
Good luck to all Aussie competitors, I would love to see these people/teams win gold:
Grant Hackett, will be a truly phenomenal achievement if he can win the 1500 for the third consecutive time or even the 400 after finishing twice behind Thorpey – right up there in all time great sporting achievements in Australia.
The Opals basketball team, preferably beating the Yanks by a point in the final. Have always admired Lauren Jackson, don’t know much about the finer points of basketball but she looks a John Eales type leader.
The mens rowing 8, tough sport to train for, requires dedication and teamwork and we’ve been unlucky (missing the start in Sydney) in the past.
Liesel Jones and Libby Trickett – good Brissy girls taking on the world.
August 7th 2008 @ 9:07am
Millster said | August 7th 2008 @ 9:07am | Report comment
And Spiro, on the cyclists your glaring omission is Katherine Bates. 2007 World Champion and twice Commonwealth Gold medallist in the womens points race (track), and even though she is a track specialist she is also at a peak in terms of her pro-career road performances (she races for Team High Road, formerly T-Mobile) and has finished in the top 5 numerous times in European events. I’m biased being one of her family support crew, but she is regarded as one of the best medal hopes in the whole team.
August 7th 2008 @ 10:04am
Spiro Zavos said | August 7th 2008 @ 10:04am | Report comment
Thanks Harry and Millster
My hope in writing this up is to encourage Roarers to throw in their picks and hopes. Katherine Bates looks to be a cyclist worth watching. Hopefully Millster will keep us informed, virtually from the inside, of her progress to gold. Remember the name, then: KATHERINE BATES going for folf in the womens points race (track).
August 7th 2008 @ 10:35am
Jameswm said | August 7th 2008 @ 10:35am | Report comment
I’m tipping that we could go nuts in the pool and win up to half the events.
Each of the men’s and women’s have 32 golds for grabs in the pool.
The only 5 events where we aren’t expected to challenge for a gold are the two backstrokes and the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles, but don’t say that to 16yo Emily Seebohm or Bronte Barratt. We’re favourites in almost all of the other 11 events, in some roaring (excuse the pun) favourites, like the breaststroke events and the 4×100 medley.
In the men’s it’s Sullivan in the 50 and 100 free and Hackett in the 400 & 1500 free, plus our strong 4×100 free relay in an event where 4 or 5 teams have good claims. I’d be surprised if we even medalled in any of the other men’s events, except maybe Brendan rickard in the 200 breast. Based on some lead-up times he just swam, Hackett seems to be on fire and in the form of his life. It’s only a few sleeps till Sunday morning when he has the 400 free final and the luscious Stephanie Rice the 400IM final.
In the athletics Spiro you forgot about Sally McLelland. She left Australia as a decent shot at the final and now lines up as a genuine medal contender, after tearing strips of our oldest national record 2 or 3 times. She’s been within a yard of the top 2-3 hurdlers in the world and has been improving all season.
August 7th 2008 @ 10:47am
Rabbitz said | August 7th 2008 @ 10:47am | Report comment
Spiro,
Warren Potent is the current No.1 in 50m Prone Rifle and current Equal World Record holder – a definite medal chance to add to the shooting tally.
August 7th 2008 @ 1:25pm
Spiro Zavos said | August 7th 2008 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
Jameswm and Rabbitz
We need you to keep us up to date with your picks. I’m particularly interested in the swimming because England has put huge resources into breaking into the Australian medal haul.
August 7th 2008 @ 2:49pm
Jameswm said | August 7th 2008 @ 2:49pm | Report comment
I can’t see how our women aren’t stronger now that they ever have been. Apart from the distance freestyles and the backstrokes, we’d have to be favourite in every event, except maybe the 4×200 free.
And with the men, even after Sullivan the next 3 100 freestylers are very fast and all sub-49 I think (I just checked and Ashley Callus came 4th with 48.68, incredible depth. I just did the exercise of adding up the top 4 Aust and US times from the trials and the Yanks have us by 0.23 – it will be a cracking race). Sullivan’s the fastest we’ve ever had and we’ve never had a 4th fastest that quick. Thorpe was our fastest at the last Olympics and we’ve got 2-3 faster than him now, one three-quarters of a second faster.
Sullivan is a full half second faster than anyone in the world except that rather impressively proportioned Frenchman, so for the Yanks and others to challenge they’d need to build up a big lead.
Sullivan might split 46.7 on a last leg, imagine that!!
We’d need all our swimmers to be at their best of course, but I have a feeling Tricket, Hackett and Jones, for example, are in PB shape. And for those 3, PB = gold medal = world record .
Rice, Schipper and Sullivan are under the heavy spotlight for the 1st time, so we’re not sure how they’ll cope.
it was a shame an unfit Jodie Henry didn’t battle away for 5th place in the 100 free at the trials, because she’d have had enough time to get in shape and be in our fastest 4 for the 4×100 free relay. But we found Melanie Schlanger and doing the time adding exercise with the Yanks, we’re 1.4 seconds ahead. Our 2nd and 3rd fastest are similar, but Trickett’s a full second faster than their best.
August 7th 2008 @ 10:13pm
Bruce Walkley said | August 7th 2008 @ 10:13pm | Report comment
Who’s going to win gold? Certainly not Channel 7, whose coverage of Australia’s first soccer match started after the game finished, with a commentator “here in Beijing” calling the match in Shanghai.
August 8th 2008 @ 5:18am
Mitch (in Valencia) said | August 8th 2008 @ 5:18am | Report comment
Fellas, after reading that article and all those comments, I am now pumped (even more than I was before!) to see every milli-second of our athletes perform. It gets said over and over, but god I am proud of how well we do with only 21 million. Now the challenge for me is going to be to see Aussies compete on Spanish TV.
“Gold, gold to Australia, gold!”
August 8th 2008 @ 10:19am
Jameswm said | August 8th 2008 @ 10:19am | Report comment
I’ve seen some predictions that we’ll only win 5 or 6 golds in the pool.
Who’s going to beat our women’s sprint butterflyers and freestylers? Who’ll beat Leisel? And Hackett?
I can’t really see how we can win any less than 8 in the pool alone and I’m expecting 12.