'a Dull Thud' Was All It Took

The Age

Monday August 30, 2004

Richard Hinds

The Kookaburras provided the highlight as teams outshone individual stars, writes Richard Hinds.

Athlete of the Games? Hicham El Guerrouj would get my vote, not just for finally winning his first gold medal in the 1500 metres, but for producing a performance of such courage and persistence that some were very nearly tempted from the press bar to see it.

That he backed it up with 12-and-a-half victory laps in the 5000 metres was just the cream.

Michael Phelps won six gold medals - although, if you want to split hairs, one of those came for a relay in which he did not swim the final.

And yet, as he dog-paddled along in the historic wash of Mark Spitz, Phelps somehow managed to produce the most disappointing six gold-medal effort imaginable, just as Marion Jones' three golds in Sydney seemed slightly uninspiring, given all the hype about "the female Jesse Owens".

Don't blame the athletes. Blame the marketing men who push the bar too high.

If you wanted to get esoteric, you could throw up the name of Birgit Fischer, the "grande dame of paddlesports", who won an amazing eighth kayaking gold medal over six Olympics.

If she was Australian, we would be commissioning statues and stamps bearing her rather stern countenance. But she is merely German. And a former East German at that. So, ask the folks back home about Birgit Fischer and most will probably guess she was Colonel Clink's secretary in Hogan's Heroes.

For those who like to see a star born, what about the British boxer Amir Khan, who reached the gold medal bout about a full year before he was old enough to pick a fight in a pub? Or, for surprise factor, Kate Allen, the fast-finishing triathlete from the very-outer Austrian suburb of Geelong.

Of the Australians who competed for Australia, Ian Thorpe won the two races expected in the manner, well, expected.

Jana Pittman did not win the gold medal expected - but you may have read that somewhere. Ryan Bayley became the sort of model whose role the average man can follow. Not by winning two gold medals in track cycling, but by doing so on the Homer Simpson training diet.

Great efforts all. But there was no Carl Lewis, no Owens, no Spitz - baseball coaches excepted. Instead, when it came to memories, good and bad, it was team sports that ruled.

Here, a vested interest must be declared. When you have spent three hours a day travelling to Helleniko and back to watch the Australian men's hockey team edge towards the final, then watched a brilliantly co-ordinated performance by a superbly prepared team in a nail-biting decider, this is the least you deserve.

So, for me, the sweetest memory of these games will actually be a sound. It will be the dull thud the ball made by Jamie Dwyer's sweet strike as it thumped into the backboard.

The celebrations of individuals usually involve a flag, a nice smile and a hand-waving lap. Team celebrations, with their human pyramids and shared joy, somehow seem more complete.

The pyramid made by super-sized US softball team was almost to scale. But, by giving up just one run in the entire tournament - against Australia in the final - the Americans were clearly the most dominant team in the Olympics.

While it might seem a harsh call, the most disappointing team was the Opals.

Losing to a star-studded US team was no disgrace. But the fact Australia's best player, Lauren Jackson, is now being guarded by all-time great Lisa Leslie, rather than the other way around, showed what a great chance they had.

The Australians will lament an opening period in which they looked like they were trying to shoot a water melon into a thimble.

The Australian individual pursuit team was a model of precision and discipline. The Australian rowing eight was not.

A couple of team egos were deflated. You can't imagine Dream Teamer Allen Iverson's bronze medal will be front and square in his trophy cabinet.

The US sprinters, meanwhile, had agonised about how they would celebrate their gold medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay.

Could they obey team orders to express their natural exuberance without going over the top? The problem was solved when the British took the lead and hung on to win. After all, dancing around in the Stars and Stripes doesn't look quite so cool on the second step of the dais.

While calling a loosely assembled collection of athletes from vastly different sports a "team" seems strange, the Australian Olympic team deserves a big rap. A record 17 gold medals, 49 in all. A healthy return for the taxpayer's dollar.

© 2004 The Age

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