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We all love our champions and we all like to see them succeed, especially those who may be in the twilight of their careers or have been below par due to an injury.
Is it the unexpected medals that often produce the best memories at an Olympic Games.
The granddaddy of all of those has to be Steven Bradbury’s gold in the speed skating. Any Winter Olympic medal could be seen as Australia punching above our weight due to limited access to snow and such a limited season to breed a winter sports culture. Alyssa Camplin’s gold also falls into this category.
Who could forget the squeal of delight as she landed that last jump, and that radiant smile!
Jai Wallace in the trampolining, Lauren Burns in Tae Kwon Do in Sydney 2000 and Matthew Mitcham’s perfect last dive to snatch the gold in Beijing are just a sample of others that spring to mind. Even as far back as 1984, Jon Seiben’s win in the 200 metre butterfly was a classic “bolt from the blue”
While the Australian athletics team in London has our favourites like Sally Pearson and Mitchell Watt who are likely to feature in the medals, we are likely to see a few surprise medals by those on the cusp.
Mitchell Watt’s jumping compatriot Henry Frayne’s rise to prominence in the last twelve months has been meteoritic. He is blessed with so much talent he may be forced to choose between the triple or long jump, having qualified for both.
Jarrod Bannister in the javelin is hovering and has shown some ominous lead-up form to his much fancied rivals. Bannister threw 81:19 to secure fourth place at the Herculis Grand Prix in Monaco on Friday, July 20.
Dani Samuels is showing she is on her way back to the form that won her the 2009 discus world title. She is another one with a memorial squeal of joy.
Fellow discus exponent Benn Harradine is currently ranked fourth this season and was second to veteran and two time Olympic champion Virgilius Alekna in Poland last Saturday.
Collis Birmingham put in an absolute blinder at the Crystal Palace meet on July 14, pushing world champion Mo Farah all the way in the 5000 metres. Don’t be surprised if he pulls a rabbit out of the hat as Farah has some enormous expectations on him from the home crowd.
However, world record holder Kennisa Bekele is back in form and looming, so it is a tough ask, but Birmingham’s form could not be better at present.
While we do not have a male representative in the individual 100 metre sprint, we do have a fairly even and solid 4 x 100 metre team with a mixture of raw youth and experience with Josh Ross. Although only ranked 15th out of the 16 permitted to run, anything can happen in a relay as we have seen in the past.
Who could forget Australia winning a surprise silver medal at the 1995 world championships?
Since no team members are competing in the individual event, they will be fresh and eager to go and have spent their time drilling the baton changes. Although being in the news for all the wrong reasons, there is also the chance of the 4 x 400 men’s team snatching a medal just due to the depth in the team.
And, as we know, some may have a point to prove.
The great disappointment of all of this for those not lucky enough to be in London is we may miss a great deal of the live coverage due to time differences: the finals generally screen at 3-5am Australian time.
It doesn’t seem quite the same to awake to hear that Sally Pearson has won the gold medal on an early morning radio news bulletin and not watching it live.
Beware of sleep deprived Australians from tonight until August 12.