Stewart McSweyn is the Chris Judd of Australian athletics, if not better… much better.
In a sporting climate that is currently dominated by the AFL and cricket, it is hard for me to sit here and comprehend the lack of media attention drawn to this man.
In keeping with the theme, people would rather speak of Stuart Dew than speak of Stewart McSweyn, the mayor of King Island.
The rise of McSweyn through the athletic world has been nothing short of incredible. Going from potentially giving up on the sport in 2014 to locking himself into an automatic spot for Tokyo, his form and tenacity hasn’t taken a hit throughout a six-year period.
In any sport, a consistent streak of six years is admired, revered and even considered unbelievable due to the consistency and dedication that it takes to be the best, but that’s just light work for McSweyn.
So, who even is this guy? Well, do you remember Craig Mottram? The man who put the entire nation on his back in 2006 and took on the might of the Africans in the 2006 Commonwealth Games?
Well, McSweyn is on the way to being if not already arrived at the point of being better than who we admired to be the best ever.
Now, when I say that, I do not for a single second take away the accomplishments, tenacity and dedication shown by Mottram over a decade-long period. However in life there always comes a time when the best gets beaten, and that may be happening right before our eyes.
In his career, Mottram was able to capture a World Championship and Commonwealth Games medal at the ages of 25 and 26 respectively, ages entering the prime years of a distance runner’s career.
(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
From there, Mottram went on to set each of his personal-best times barring one, his 5000-metre national record of 12:55.76 – a time that many believed would take decades to get near. Well, maybe change the dialogue to years if not months from now at the rate McSweyn is snapping necks and cashing cheques on the track.
Within the last year, McSweyn has made an absolute mess of the Australian domestic circuit and is now starting to knock down the door of replicating the form on a global scale.
After snatching the Australian 10,000-metre record last December with a time of 27:23, his form has translated to the shorter distances, often a common criticism for those who dominate over the longer forms of the sport. He has gone on to wheel and deal his way to personal best times of 3:31.48 at the 1500 metres (second of all time) and 7:28.02 at 3000 metres (a national record).
People who have a vested interest in athletics understand just how fast those times are and how admired they should be.
But part of the reason the general public cannot recognise the greatness in front of them is because they may not understand just how fast it is. So, let me try and break it down.
From what I have been able to dissect, the average AFL player runs a 3000-metre time trial in ten-and-a-half to 12 minutes. I understand that endurance is not the main feature of an AFL player, however, whenever the media gets a report of any player running under ten minutes, their stamina is then rated as elite.
To put this in context, McSweyn would be finished three minutes or nearly a full kilometre before your average AFL player.
Even compared to the elite of the modern game Mark Blicavs, McSweyn would be close to finishing an entire lap ahead of the best. The reason I draw this comparison is not to take away from the endurance of AFL players, but rather to paint a picture of just how truly spectacular these times by McSweyn are in comparison to what we as modern society deem to be an elite standard of running.
My question is why don’t we know more about this? Is athletics boring or not worthy of mainstream media attention?
And these feats by Australian athletes stem far beyond pinning our hopes on just McSweyn. Jessica Hull is a 25-year-old middle-distance athlete who just broke an Australian record last week only to receive media attention from athletic forums and not much more.
Time and time again, athletes are achieving amazing things and putting up performances that past generations could only dream of, yet they are overshadowed by other sports. It does not make sense.
We as a society want to nurture and encourage kids to chase their dreams and be rewarded with more than just a time in history and a ‘good job’ by those who care.
They deserve to be recognised by the general population for their amazing accomplishments and truly mind-boggling feats of human performance.
This needs more attention. Athletics needs more attention. I do not have the answer, and I really wish I did, but something needs to change.
To McSweyn, well, keep doing what you are doing because it’s certainly working. As one of the biggest names in not only domestic athletics but now globally, it would be encouraging to see the Australian media take an interest in the rapidly developing athletes of the modern era.
Lauz
Roar Rookie
I absolutely care about 5,000m races.
Marty
Roar Rookie
Hi Mitch, I think there are similarities as you noted in the fact that a result can take days to get to a result. I know plenty of people who find test match cricket incredibly boring. The difference for me is that the beginning, middle and end of a test match can be equally as exciting, where as the first few heats of an athletics event aren’t. Look, it all comes down to personal interest and what you’ve grown up on and played yourself. As I’ve previously said, each to their own but it’s not my cup of tea.
Mitch
Roar Rookie
Hey Marty, I really appreciate this feedback and it actually has given me a lot to think about. I had a question, following the same premise that it can be very frustrating to sit and watch the event transpire across a few days to get the result of the final (as in watching all the heats), do you think this is comparable to test cricket? Yes, across the potential 5 day period wickets fall and sides change from batting and bowling, however the issue remains the same that the eventual outcome doesn't arrive for days. Same can be said about athletics, athletes are knocked out and people are eliminated from the event, but the final result may take a few days depending on the event. Just really curious to get your take on that comparison. I may be completely off the mark, but I find the two to be similar on premise. Thanks! Mitch
matth
Roar Guru
The Olympics is both a blessing and curse for sports like athletics and swimming. Once every four years they get massive coverage, but at the elite level, at least to Australians every other competition is considered just training for the Olympics. I'm not sure how you break that cycle.
Dale
Guest
Nice article and I agree to a certain extent. However, small nitpick being your estimates of AFL players 3km times; they're more 9-10.5 minutes. If you ran a 12 minute 3km you'd be sent away from the club to work on your fitness haha
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Even in world champs, I haven't been noticing Australian athletes. That could be because the BBC will obviously focus on the Brits - who knows? Equally, it could be on me. I'm still in my late teens and fresh out of school so I had to prioritise the sports I wanted to watch to balance alongside the studies.
Marty
Roar Rookie
I think I stated pretty clearly in my first post why I don’t find athletics particularly interesting, did you miss that bit? You can call it dumping if you like, I’d call it having an opinion. You obviously don’t cope very well when someone has a different opinion to you and feel the need to resort to labels such as ‘dumping’, instead of explaining why you think that sitting through days of heats before the final is actually compelling viewing.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Nice try. Characterise it how you want, but calling a sport mind-numbing [ly boring] is dumping on it. I'm not offended. All these posts day a lot more about you. If you find the sport boring, fine, but stand by what you say. I probably find sports you watch boring too, but I'll own it and explain why.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
There are 2 problems - first is cost, little a's tend to be a lot more expensive than other options. Second is parent involvement, which is huge. You need parents willing to volunteer at least a couple of hours a fortnight, which many parents simply don't want to. Neither problem has a solution, it's simply the nature of the sport.
Marty
Roar Rookie
It is for me. I didn’t say it was it was ‘rubbish’, ‘a waste of time’ etc. That’s ‘dumping’ on a sport. All I was talking about was the fact that I don’t find it very interesting, which last time I checked was the whole point of websites like this. If you choose to be offended by that then that’s completely up to you. You’re certainly not alone, finding reasons to be offended is all the rage these days.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Calling the sport mind numbing isn’t dumping on it?
Marty
Roar Rookie
The thread asked the question as to why Athletics doesn’t recieve as much coverage as other sports. I replied with the reasons I believed it didn’t, after complimenting those who participated in it and had achieved at international level. How is that ‘dumping on the whole sport’? You then asked a question, which I replied to, and then for some reason you had a little dumpy spit. Sounds like you need to do a bit of growing up, imo.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Nice of you to come onto this thread and dump on the whole sport then.
eero Keranen
Guest
It's the team sport that takes the cake. So , no matter how athletics goes in an individual effort, the team win of "average" to good athletes will get the publicity. Just look at the mediocre of players and teams in the AFL. Start an easy type of team athletics , paid and on TV, with recruitment from all athletes. Maybe not a club based but a selected team.
Monorchid
Roar Rookie
Again, agreed jameswm. I do follow the Tour each year, and there's not much during the Tour in my local newspaper either. And what Porte has achieved is extraordinary - third on the podium. Thanks for your research into social media followings. I was totally unaware of all that.
Monorchid
Roar Rookie
Agreed jameswm. I wasn't seriously suggesting that running tracks be plonked around cricket or football fields. Still, you might recall that the Gabba had a dog track around it for quite a lot of years. Different sort of athletics, I suppose. And you're right about TV not showing athletics and not paying for it. And they probably don't because not too many people would watch it. Unfortunately.
Marty
Roar Rookie
Buggered if I know James. Each to their own however I find find both pretty mind numbing.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Smithy this is predominantly a rugby site and rugby also does social media poorly, but with a much bigger budget. Let’s look at social media, Instagram. How many followers? 142,000 Warholm 162,000 Christian Coleman 115 Barshim 9.8m Bolt. 274,000 Jakob Ingebritsen. In Australia 71,000 Sally Pearson 72,000 Tay Clark and her little sister 31,000 517,000 Michelle Jenneke. For the boys 6,000 for Rohan Browning in the glamour 100m and McSweyn has 15,000.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Why do people watch motor racing then Marty?
jameswm
Roar Guru
I notice them Josh. Which comps are you referring to? For Diamond League it’s only the top 10 in the world competing. We can’t have that in every event.