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My advice to our Olympians: There's more to success than a metal disc

18th August, 2016
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Brandon Starc reacts during the men's high jump final at the Rio Games. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
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18th August, 2016
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We are in the final straight of the Rio Olympics, and the pub chat has turned to how we feel about athletes excitingly exceeding our expectations, or confusingly under-performing.

Then there’s the subsequent nonchalance from the athlete themselves, the unending questions about why we aren’t winning enough gold medals.

I wrote earlier about the strive to win, not winning alone being the spirit of the Olympics; the story of the Australian athlete is better than that of winning a medal.

Early on in the Games we were treated to Advance Australia Fair thanks to unexpected Olympic champions Mack Horton, Catherine Skinner and Kyle Chalmers. All let us rejoice.

Simultaneously we saw seventh placed Cam McEvoy surprisingly buoyant and congratulatory, despite widely being considered favourite to claim the gold in his race. You could hear the national confusion as to why he wasn’t snarling with anger and blubbering with disappointment.

When Cate Campbell finished sixth in the Olympic final we all expected her to win. The sound of her own heart breaking made us shed a tear, as she questioned her own self-worth. She asked us not to.

Her younger sister Bronte, despite not medalling, told us she had already won by racing in an Olympic final with her big sister. How many of us wish we could be able to achieve such significance with our siblings?

I don’t have kids (yet), but I have two charming nephews and a cripplingly adorable niece. I see the pride in my sister when her eldest son receives a kindergarten certificate for “playing fair”; my other sister’s satisfaction when her infant daughter figured out how to use one of her legs to push a scooter 30 centimetres.

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I can try to imagine the pride, satisfaction and the “hey, we kinda did ok” for parents Campbell. They had two in an Olympic final!

That’s not under-performing.

And you know something Australia… those girls are our daughters too!

They’re Aussies. They learnt their craft in our waters and they were out there representing us.

Maybe the younger Campbell was sharing some wisdom beyond her years, allowing us all to be proud of them before we lament the lack of a metallic disc around their necks. The sisters were able to navigate all possible obstacles that could’ve sunk that moment of being in the same elite race, the same final, at the same Olympics.

Now I’m not advocating apathy or mediocrity when it comes to competing as an Olympian. But given the pressure of the media, of the moment and that which athletes put on themselves to win a gold medal, the reflections athletes give in interviews can provide balance to the conversation.

The moment after Australia’s Olympic Rowing Champion Kim Brennan, breaking an eight-year rowing gold drought, a women’s all-time sculling drought, and winning Australia’s first ever gold in an individual rowing event, she showed some of the emotions that comes from Olympic pressure.

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She finished her race shocked and broke down in tears in the arms of Olympic Rowing Champion James Tomkins. See case study: C. Freeman (2000).

Throughout a four-year cycle, the rowing athletes were regularly reminded by Rowing Australia that selection and funding decisions were made targeting gold medals in Rio. Without medals, amateur sports like rowing have their funding cut by the government.

Kim Brennan’s sculling race was one of the last of the Olympic rowing program. She had seen the Men’s Quad Scull and the Men’s Four both win silver medals, and now the funding for all of Australian rowing would be resting on her result. Maybe that’s more valuable than one medal, given the flow-on effect to so many people in the sport.

The emotions expressed in an athlete’s interview are trying to account for something other than the narrative we hear about medals. They provide a different perspective. Kim shared that her medal had included an enormous broader team, and it was the culmination of 11 years of work with her coach to win gold.

There’s another perspective on how the story behind the result isn’t just about a medal.

I can share from personal experience, and I’m sure Cate and Kim had the same, there’s plenty of people you meet along the Olympic journey, who are only sharing their best hopes and wishes. They say “wouldn’t it be amazing if you won an Olympic gold medal?!”…and it would be, but unconsciously, this adds pressure. It starts to shape the narrative you have to weave when asked about why you did or didn’t.

Anna Meares said after her bronze, “…believe me it’s really been hard and so challenging. Even in my own country…people come up and challenge me for positions in the team. I’ve worked hard to earn my position and I’m proud I’ve done that…”

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There’s some balance right there.

And Australia is not the only country that questions its performances. 2014 World Champion New Zealander Emma Twigg finished fourth in the Single Scull. She was at her third Olympics, and was considered Kim Brennan’s strongest rival.

She said, “It’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life that I won’t be an Olympic champion, which is a dream I’ve had since I was a young girl.”

Olympic athletes provide some insight as to what it’s like to work in a high pressure, pass/fail, once every four-year context and not just about the medal.

I remember seeing some dickhead behaviour of a gold medalist during the 2004 Athens campaign.

Seeing me confused and disappointed, some words of advice given to me was: “Chappo, if you’re dickhead before you win a gold medal, you’ll still be a dickhead after you win a gold medal.”

The same goes for all those who don’t win medals too.

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Winning or not winning a gold medal doesn’t define who you are.

Cate and Bronte Campbell, Mack Horton, Catherine Skinner, Cam McEvoy, Kim Brennan, Australia’s teary Women’s Beach Volleyball duo of Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy, Kyle Chalmers (note this young man) and our Women’s Water Polo Team (who, daringly, publicly stated they believed they could win gold) should, upon reflection, in a quiet moment, remind themselves they are not the media narrative, the performance expectations, the medal, the tracksuit or the social media account they run.

Moreso, and forever more valuable than a Olympic Medals, they are someone’s sister, son, daughter, club-mate, wife, role models and mate who can share a coffee, a beer, a story, a quiet moment, a laugh, a challenge or someone to enjoy whatever the future holds with.

Their Olympic medal, or lack of, will shape their life, their story, and Australia’s story, but it can’t be timeless like a memory you left with someone, like a feeling you remember, a lesson learnt for next time, like how you made someone else feel when you gave it your all or how you inspired the next person to bravely strive for anything that could Advance Australia Fair.

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