Our Best Olympic Team Toasts Hockey Win
The Sunday Age
Sunday August 29, 2004
It could not have been scripted better. With a "golden goal", the Kookaburras ended a 48-year losing streak in men's hockey and gave Australia its most successful Olympic Games.
The golden moment came seconds from the end of the first half of sudden-death, extra-time, when Jamie Dwyer struck the goal that gave Australia a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands. The win, which came after the Kookaburras' repeated failures to live up to their status as favourites, also pushed Australia's total medal tally to 44.By mid-morning yesterday that had been boosted to 46, as kayaker Nathan Baggaley took silver in the men's K1 500 event, and then teamed up with Clint Robinson to do the same in the K2 500. And early today, the Opals took that total to 47."It's a fantastic achievement by a fantastic team that has bonded tremendously in the three weeks they have been here," hockey team spokesman Mike Tancred said. "How appropriate that a champion bunch of blokes have rewritten the history books."For the laughing Kookaburras it was a sleepless night to remember - a "historic night", said goal scorer Jamie Dwyer. After tumultuous on-field celebrations and a memorable bus ride home, the victorious team returned to the athletes' village to relax, review a video of the game and have a couple of drinks. "A couple of hundred," added Dwyer, who 12 hours later Dwyer was still wearing his winner's wreath. With the the country's Olympians due to return home, the Federal Government is in discussions with the Australian Olympic Committee about national celebrations, while the Victorian Government is expected to announce a party for the state's competitors. They will return as the most successful team ever to leave Australia, having won almost twice as many golds as in Atlanta eight years ago, when the total haul was 41. As chef de mission John Coates said, "It is an amazing performance." True, but it will not avert a post-mortem into the underperformance of the 48-strong track-and-field team.
© 2004 The Sunday Age