Is Hackett better than Salnikov?

In less than 24 hours we will know if Grant Hackett has won his 3rd successive 1500m freestyle gold medal, and title of the ‘greatest 1500m swimmer in history’.

If or when Hackett achieves this, I wonder if he’ll spare a thought for Salnikov. Before Grant Hackett, or even Kieren Perkins, there was Vladimir Salnikov.

If it hadn’t been for the politics of the 1980s, Salnikov would’ve / should’ve won 3 successive 1500m freestyle gold medals. In which case, Hackett would be attempting to emulate Salnikov, rather than attempting to achieve what hasn’t been done before.

In 1980, Salnikov won 3 gold medals – 1500m freestyle, 400m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay. This was the games boycotted by Americans, Canadians, West Germans and a number of key individual athletes from other countries like Australia and Great Britain.

Had the Americans been competing, Salnikov wouldn’t have won the relay, while the 400m might have been 50/50. Just before the Moscow Olympics, Canadian Peter Schmidt broke the 400m freestyle record, but whether he would have replicated that at the games is something we can never know for sure.

In 1984, the Soviet Union (Russia) and other Eastern European countries boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in a ‘tit for tat’ reprisal. In a swimming meet held almost simultaneously with the Olympics, Salnikov won the 1500m freestyle in a faster time than that of the Olympics gold medal winner , American Mike O’Brien.

By the time of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Salnikov was considered “washed up” and unwanted by the Russian Olympic selection committee. Only the intervention of the Russian President allowed a place for Salnikov to be found on the swimming team.

The similarities between Salnikov in 1987-88 and Hackett in 2007-08 are scary. Like Hackett in 2008, Salnikov was 28 going into the 1988 Olympics; like Hackett in 2007, Salnikov bombed out at the previous year’s World cahmpionship in 1987; like Hackett at present, Salnikov was held together by his wife, who went so far as to be his coach and trainer.

For the final in 1988, Salnikov qualified 2nd fastest, while Hackett has qualified fastest. In the 1988 final, Salnikov surged ahead in the middle stages to then hold off the fast finishing German Stefan Pfeiffer. What will Hackett do?

But here’s something to stir the emotions, and I quote directly from David Wallechinsky’s magnificent tome: ‘The Complete Book Of The Olympics’.

“At 11.30pm that night, after all the photos and interviews and ceremonies and congratulations were over, Vladimir Salnikov walked into the cafeteria at the athletes’ village, hoping to grab a late snack. There were about 250 or 300 athletes and coaches in the room, representing a wide variety of nations and sports. As word spread that Salnikov had entered , the athletes and coaches spontaneously stopped eating, rose and gave him a standing ovation.”

How good was that!

If or when Hackett wins his 3rd successive 1500m freestyle final, will he think to acknowledge Salnikov? And will the swimmers, athletes and coaches from other nations give him a standing ovation?