When it comes to sport, we Aussies can be a tad smug. We know we’re good.
For a small nation we punch above our weight (pun definitely intended) and we know it. We swim faster than the rest, we jump higher, we hit harder, we run further and goddammit we beat the Poms.
Our Olympics story is usually one of excitement and achievement as those wearing the green and gold bring home medals in shades that match their uniforms. But not this year.
The narrative of Australia’s performance at this year’s Olympics is totally different to that of years gone past. It is one of negativity and one of blame.
Whether it’s the media, the team culture, the Government, or the athletes themselves – we are all searching for someone we can label as responsible for the reason we’re sitting behind New Zealand on that medal tally.
Here are some of the potential culprits:
AUSTRALIA’S TEAM CULTURE
Former Australian Olympic swimmer, Geoff Huegill:
Geoff Huegill
” ‘I’m already at the pub’ … what kind of message is that when teammates were still to swim for medals on the last day.” news.com.au
“The team spirit wasn’t what it should have been. I believe there’s too much looking after the individual performance in the mentality of some young swimmers and coaches rather than the one-team approach.” news.com.au
“In my day, knowing you had a close team behind you when you stood on the blocks made a huge difference. I hope all the rookies in London got as much as I once did from that. It upsets me.” – news.com.au
THE ATHLETE’S WORK ETHIC
Former Australian swimming champion, Susie O’Neill:
“It’s really difficult in my situation to feel like I’m bagging the current athletes, and it’s easy to do that as a past athlete, but what I’ve been hearing a little bit from different people is work ethic from Australian swimmers is maybe not the same as it used to be 10 years ago,” she said. – Sydney Morning Herald
Former Olympic Swimming Coach Don Talbot defending team’s work ethic & blaming coaches’ preference to train international athletes:
“A lot of [Chinese athletes] are in Australia working with our coaches and … they pay more money,” Talbot said. “If someone starts throwing money at them, they’re going to start paying attention to those people.” – Sydney Morning Herald
THE GOVERNMENT
President of Australian Olympic Commitee John Coates:
John Coates
”What do you do when you have a poor season? You look at your program and you look at your coaches … I think there’s enough money in the system. They’re just not necessarily spending it wisely”. - Sydney Morning Herald
Eddie McGuire, Channel 9 presenter:“Time will tell how many athletes and officials will say those words with their fingers crossed, and whether in four years’ time in Rio there will be a further addition of “and promise not to make a complete fool of myself, my country and all those who have sacrificed to give me a chance at Olympic glory by being an idiot on Twitter and turning the Olympic Games into a personal reality TV show”. – Herald Sun
“I don’t know, I just felt like I didn’t really get off [social media] and get into my own mind. I obviously need to sign out of Twitter and log out of Facebook a lot sooner than I did.” – Brisbane Times
Russell Mark
Australian shooter Russell Mark: ‘There are a lot of athletes that use some kind of sleeping aide and they use it responsibly. Not everyone gets addicted to sleeping tablets and I’m an example of it. I’ve competed on them for 20 years and I will until the end of my career because I find they help me. I’m a very poor sleeper.
”I just think that we’ve got to be very careful of tarnishing the whole team and forcing this underground … I think a little bit more debate was needed before a decision was made.” – Sydney Morning Herald
Comments
138 Comments so far
I think the administration needs a total wipeout. To be honest as much as I didnt like his views at first, it was great to see shooter Russell Mark stand up to Coates and Green. Maybe we need more athletes to speak their mind and show some individuality instead of being clones and just going along for the ride and a tracksuit
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I am disgusted at the judgement and treatment our athletes are receiving at the hands of every couch potato and/or know it all television annoucer or viewer in Australia. It reminds me of the way we treated our soldiers on their return from Vietnam. Those brave young men still haven’t recovered. How dare any person critique these young men and woman. I am proud of every single one of them who have fought for (basically) their entire life to get where they are now, I am certain that not one of these athletes went to London with the intent to lose. God help Australia’s para-olympians.
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I swear, looking at this issue, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
Whatever happened to losing gracefully? Is there some divine right Australians have to gold above all other competitors? The best person was the best person on the day. That’s what sport is. And there has to be a winner. Honestly, the whingeing of the public and the athletes on this issue is astonishing.
And all the “whyyyyyy”? And the ridiculous analysis. Because the other competitor was better. Deal with it. Cripes.
I was disgusted the other day when I heard some idiot news presenter saying ruefully, “oh, the US, NZ and *even* Kazakhstan….” Oh, I’m sorry? Is Kazakhstan somehow less deserving? Are they more worthy of ridicule? Is it so astonishing to believe that, in this instance, their competitors were just better?
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Perhaps we should be concentrating on the declining abilites of Australian children to perform age appropriate physical tasks.
The Olympics are now about money and TV ratings but am proud of our athletes/
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I think the athletes have been giving it their all, and should be supported for their efforts.
Eddie McGuire as a commentator though? He spoiled both the women’s triathlon and women’s marathon for me. When he has an expert in the sport with him, he needs to keep very quiet. I’ve been watching marathons for 30 years and his is the worst effort at commentating I’ve heard.
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This is typically Australian. Whenever something wrong happens, the first thing the public do is put the blame on someone or something.
We may be a great sporting nation and have won medals in the past but can we please remember that we’re only a very small country in comparison to the US or China who have more people and have more funds to play with. Yes it’s awful that we’re not at the top of our game this year but it’s only expected given our countries economics.
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It may not even be economics. Shit just happens, and someone else is sometimes the victor because they perform better. It’s not actually unfair. It’s the opposite of that.
I think the current group of athletes and commentators need to learn some graceful sportsmanship.
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wasnt funding to all sport reduced, especially some of the olympic sports when australia made a bid to hold the soccer world cup (and didn’t get it) this bid took millions from other sports fundings … there was outcry from many olympic coaches then that the performances will suffer at the next olympics… and guess what has happened
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AOC John Coates is quoted as saying: “… I think there’s enough money in the system. They’re just not necessarily spending it wisely”
Well, John, explain this one:
http://www.theage.com.au/business/olympics-boss-demands-support-despite-100m-cash-pile-20120807-23rbo.html
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I’m very happy to watch any team compete in the Olympics, it only happens once every four years and seeing champions of sport for any nation is a pleasure and a privilege.
I’m even happy for NZ to be doing well.
I think there’s some poor sportsmanship happening from both our athletes and the public, but I guess being that tax payers fund most of these competitors it’s reasonable to have expectations and demand a level of accomplishment after all, every cent of tax payer money is earned by someone else working hard, many of whom have given up on their own dreams to become providers in dead end jobs.
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Mamamia – please don’t become part of the media pack tearing down the amazing acheivements of our athletes. I for one am proud of our Olympic team. I don’t think anyone is ‘to blame’ for the successes of our team. It’s not all about bloody gold medals for chrissake!
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There’s no option for me me to “like” (finding that a lot lately – anyone else) but wanted it to be known I whole heartedly agree with you Jayne. The media (including now it seems Mamamia which is disappointing) need to back off! Well done to all our athletes. I’d like to see all of those people judging them get to where they are on the world stage!
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I’m not seeing much humility amongst this current batch of Olympians….particularly the swimmers. For me they just haven’t connected like the Susie o’Neills or Ian Thorpes of the past. It’s all about attitude and they don’t seem to have enough of the right stuff. Can’t think of anyone who is in contention for a great marketing offer.
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Just because the swimmers didn’t perform, doesn’t mean other competitors in other sports won’t. It’s not over yet
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Someone has to lose. Sometimes it will be us. Sometimes it wont. Its called the Olympic GAMES.
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Maybe I’m one of the rare few who get way too into many sports in the Olympics and not just the swimming but this whole discussion just seems really doom and gloom to me. Not any one comment in particular… just the fact that the media has brought this up right now at all and now we’re discussing it as well. Can you imagine if you were an Aussie athlete who hasn’t even completed their event yet and you came across some of this stuff in the media? It feels like everyone expected our swimmers to do well and now the assumption is we’re only left with no hopers in other sports when that’s simply not true. We have many people still representing Australia this week… if the media wants to analyse why the swimmers didn’t come home with bagloads of gold let them be the Debbie Downers. But we can choose to wait until at least after the Olympics are over to join that conversation and instead focus on all of the people who are still in with a chance.
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‘We can choose to wait…’ – nobody can wait 5 minutes anymore for anything, it’s 2012. Impossible.
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I dont think the mentality fostered in our schools today where everyone gets a ribbon for participating is giving kids the hunger to win that we once had.
Why strive to come first and expect nothing less when you’ll be rewarded with a ribbon and told you’re wonderful for coming second last or even worse cuddled by mum for getting out half way in tears because you’re not coming first? Reality is needed. Please someone bring it back.
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Anon, I’m from New Zealand and I have watched several of your athletes just miss out on gold in London. I don’t think you get to an Olympic final and just miss out on gold by not “striving to come first”. It’s not exactly an easy waltz into an Olympic final from what I’ve heard, you have to have a pretty serious hunger to win to get to the level that these athletes are at. These athletes are distraught after their race and I think to say that they don’t really care about how they do is quite insulting to them. Australia in recent years has been exceptionally good at swimming and maybe everyone has just started taking this as the norm. I understand where you are coming from with this comment as New Zealand has been accused of this type of thought process for a while but I’m just not sure if its truly the reason you have so many silver medals instead of gold.
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Well said!
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To me, there is not just one reason we have “failed” at these Olympics. It is the many that add up.
Firstly, we lost a lot of our good coaching staff to Team GB and Team China. The cyclists, the rowers – all have Aussie coaches. We obviously didn’t pay them enough to keep them.
We also had a lot of sick and injured swimmers, which is where we usually pick up medals. It was heartbreaking to watch Emily Seabohm in tears, thinking she’d let her parents and country down. It was disgusting to listen to Giann Rooney interrogate her. Stephanie Rice’s shoulder was always suspect, the public just didn’t realise how much. James Magnussen is still a rookie, but he was hyped to the nth degree. I think he had no way to live up to that. A lack of sleep aids and no team psychologist didn’t help either.
There are many questions and I’m sure there will be many answers. Perhaps we are simply going through a re-building stage having many of our seasoned athletes retiring. Time will tell. Cutting funding is not the answer.
As for those saying athletes should be happy if they come second or third? Name me an athlete who competes for that. (My son would never have played NSW cricket if he didn’t have the hunger to win.) When they compete, they compete to win, and the Olympics is the biggest competition around.
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I couldn’t believe the commentary when I watched Benita Willis (former world cross country winner) struggle in at 100th position in the marathon, injured, saying things like ‘aren’t we just so proud, just 5 weeks ago Benita tore her hip tendons (?) but said she just wanted to compete for Australia and finish the race to thank everyone for their support…’ etc etc.
What!? Why on earth didn’t anyone stop the woman? Someone else could have taken her place and even if there was nobody else, the last thing I want to see is one of my favourite athletes hobbling home in an olympic marathon injured.
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Seeing as there’s practically still half of the Olympics left to go, couldn’t we all be focusing on cheering on all our other athletes, as opposed to flogging the ones that are already down?
Also, I think that our new generation of swimmers have done so well – just think, if they are getting silver and bronze at their first Olympics, they are certain to have a brilliant career ahead!
I’m the same age as many of these young talents, and honestly, I would be freaking out at having to come home to all these people who have been getting angry on their couches about “only” achieving silver medals at the world’s biggest sporting event.
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Australia entered these games with an appalling sense of complacency and self entitlement and the image of Emily Seebohm bawling her eyes out for getting silver was simply shameful. But in a way it kind of symbolized the collective national psyche when it came to the 2012 Olympics.
So we are a nation of self obsessed tweeters more concerned about posting selfies than training, of parents who don’t believe competition is good for kids, of governments who lavish scant funds on pampered stars and over-rated sports while allowing grass-roots talent to languish and die.
We expect the glory without the effort, and those who dare suggest an athlete hasn’t bothered to get into shape for competition are torn down as haters and trolls.
I think the pictures of the swimmers celebrating and pouring champagne down their throats, at a party they are attending courtesy of the public funds that paved their way to London, after this most ordinary of all campaigns, kind of says it all.
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Hear hear. The only thing I’d add is that Nick Darcy and, to a lesser extent, Monk should not have been there. They tainted the games for me.
I think we’re deluding ourselves if we believe that this current batch of swimmers are patriotically swimming for the glory of Australia. Self first, selfies second, self promotion and partying all seem to come before the honor of representing their country – on our money.
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I think it’s wrong for us to put all of the non gold winning performances under the same umbrella, for instance some of the silvers were from athletes that we really didn’t expect to win anything so they have done an amazing job to win silver.
The swimming team however had higher expectations put on their shoulders, hell in many cases the swimmers would have won gold if they had raced the same times as they did in the swimming trials. I think the lack of gold in the swimming team, as well as the constant tweeting and the lack of respect for team mates by going to the pub when races were still on – general lack of a team attitude, is a sign of major cultural issues in the swim team that need addressing.
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Not to mention how swimming management decided to restructure how sponsorship payments were split to swimmers without consulting the swimmers….cultural issues in that team….
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We should just be proud of our athletes who have given it their all, whether they come first or last! I am so sick of all the commentators and interviewers asking people who got a silver medal ‘what went wrong’ rather than saying ‘well done, what a great result’ or similar. The mentality of our media and much of the population seems to be that we have to win everything, but why can’t we just be proud that so many of our men and women qualified and made it to London? We teach our kids that it’s not about winning or losing, but how you play the game. In the commentating and media I am not seeing any of that- therefore neither is the next generation. They are seeing that trying your hardest isn’t good enough, and that simply making it to the Olympics, being one of the best athletes in the world, is no longer good enough. Shame.
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I agree – I was appalled at the Channel 9 approach to the swimmer (sorry I don’t know his name) that went on tv the morning after the men’s 4×100 relay 4th result : he was asked how he feels knowing he had to “explain yourself to Australia”.
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Isn’r Tom Slingsby cute? Go Tom!
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Loving the games and love supporting athletes from all nations.
I have cried during every medal presentation at the ladies weightlifting. When the lady from Kazakhstan won gold the other night, I was deeply moved to hear the pride in the voices of her countrymen and women as the sang the national anthem with her.
It’s great to enjoy the best of all nations and be proud of that fact. They all deserve a medal just for making it there.
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I blame it on the T in the Commonwealth Bank ads. He is a BAD OMEN, people!
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Well, Im a kiwi so…loved the oz zealand piece in the paper today where they combined both our medals…lol. You can borrow our medals if you want but you got to give them back. haha.
But seriously, there seems to be a couple of problems, first complacency. The athletes expected to go out and walk through for a gold. Secondly spending is an issue. You need to spend wisely on smart technology and develop new technology, also considering it is unlikely that the government would front up for the cost of this you need to find some benevolent private benefactors. Im sure theyre out there. In NZ Stephen Tindall has invested about $100 million on our athletes over the last five years in a joint run program with the govt.
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I’m a bit torn when it comes to the Olympics. We are supposedly this great ‘sporting nation’ and yet we have one of the highest obesity rates in the entire world. I read that every gold medal we won at the 2000 Olympics cost Australian Taxpayers $2 million! Now imagine if that money was spent buying every single child in Australia a brand new bike, or sporting equipment, or paid for them to have coaching or lessons in the sport of their choosing – surely that would be money well spent AND would also assist in getting our out of control obesity problems in check. Why don’t they use that money to establish programs within schools or employ more teachers to teach children about proper nutrition, exercise, how to make healthy meals, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the Olympics and am very patriotic, I just don’t know how our Government can justify spending so much money to support a very small minority of elite athletes, rather than going towards supporting the greater good of our nation and getting our childhood obesity problems sorted! Something just doesn’t gel for me with it all.
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I worried that when Australia was getting such a large number of gold medals per capita compared to other nations, that we were spending way too much on sport.
But now I worry that they will pour more into sport because of this supposedly ‘poor’ performance
Baaahh
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All i know is that is hard being an Aussie living in the Uk over the past few years where sport is concerned. The Olympics is just the icing on the cake – we have been trounced in all manner of things – namely the cricket! My hubby and I were speaking about it after another silver performance – our sportspeople don’t look gutted (in the main) to have lost. As I am Uk based I have seen a lot of UK events and their silver medalists look gutted to have lost. 10 years ago this would be the opposite. Aussies were well known for their die hard attitude but now we look complacent.
You only have to look at the captains of the Australian cricket team to see what has happened. Compare Border, Taylor, Waugh with the current Australian capatain. All tipped hair, glamour models and photospreads. Allan Border et al were MEN Michael Clarke is a child by comparison.
If you spent as much time on social media at your work your boss would have serious concerns and you’d probably get a warning. Well Australian athletes, you are on notice!
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As someone who is doing a sports marketing subject this year, this is a goldmine for us!! I think its mainly a media build up.. we have tall poppy syndrome here in aus.
Did anybody see that image of nz celebrating the bronze medal? Look at that compared to us..
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No, there are genuine reasons for it, not tall poppy or media.
If you look at the ‘gold’ medal tally from the last few Olympics, starting in say, 1992 (Barcelona) – Australia has won:
1992: 7
1996: 9
2000: 16
2004: 17
2008 14
And London so far: 1
It’s real – Australia is not winning anymore… so we must be doing something different from the last couple of decades. I think it’s fair enough to ask the question.
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like it or not the olympics is a big polical issue for countries.They like to be on the world stage `hence the huge budgets.Does it help a countries feelgood factor ? does it help the economy ?. But we all want to win.
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Whata great wake up call for Australia. It’s about time the government and media focused more on education than sports. Yes, sports are important. But not as important as educatiing more nurses, doctors, engineers and more. Why don’t companies like Kraft and Nestlé who produce Vegemite and Milo throw some funding to the education system, sponsor kids with high academic achievements and make those kids the ones ours look up to.
It probably wouldn’t happen, but in my perfect world it would!
On the upside though, good on ALL the athletes for making it to the games and having a go at their event. I don’t think anyone is in a position to be blaming anyone for not winning gold, especially not me.. I’m not that good at anything I could make it to any type of Olympics… Except maybe the risotto Olympics.
I guess it’s easy to sit at home on your fat bums pointing fingers at the Olympians for not winning any Olympic medals. Just have a good look around at where you are right now, and where they are….
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Am I the only one who feels quite sickened at the amount of money countries such as the US, China and North Korea must be spending on elite sport, when all those countries have so much poverty.
I would feel really proud if Australia cut funding for elite sport – my big fear, however, is that funding will be increased because of our results.
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I don’t think the athletes should be disappointed at their efforts but the government put millions of dollars into each athlete and they expect a return on their money just like anyone. Maybe if they cut their funding a bit ppl wouldn’t expect as much for the athletes
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they are not letting us down I reckon it is the media who is let them down because they are making a big deal about coming second and what would the next generations think like if they got second in a carnival they wont be happy
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I blame myself…I was just expecting that we would do really well…I took it for granted that we would win nearly every gold medal in the pool…it never once occurred to me that it would be any other way…I think I expected too much.
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I don’t believe that they have let us down, they have tried their best can and I am proud of them.
We have all put pressure on them and the media have put ‘disappointment’ into everyones minds.
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I agree Emma, thanks!
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Exactly Emma! It’s about having a go!
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Rubbish. Ofcourse we feel let down – and it’s not the media’s fault. We sent the fifth largest team to the Olympics and I’m unsure how our financial commitment compares with other nations but I’m sure we are right up there. With the honour of representing their country comes a certain degree of expectation and they haven’t lived up to it. Hopefully the next batch of Australian Olympians will learn something from this lot. Something about some of them doesn’t sit well with me.
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Seriously? Expectation? we have some amazingly talented athletes over in London, although they haven’t gotten the same results as athletes in the past but there still the best in the country!! Maybe our past athletes were more talented, or dealt better under stress or maybe the other athletes have just gotten faster, it doesn’t matter, they are still Australia’s best and they are doing their best. If you actually look into the lead up to the games for quite a few of our athletes (swimmers in particular) you will see that there has been a disproportionate amount of injury and illness plaguing the team, the fact that some of them even made it there is bloody amazing!!!
I don’t think anyone sitting on their lounge watching on has a right to feel let down as they are in no shape to get up and do the same!
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Loving the chat about this topic on Mamamia Today RIGHT NOW! You should tune in if you’re not listening already. Some great comments from callers.
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Speaking of the radio show…..first song played, something about partying with the sexy girls all over the world !
Not a good look.
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On another note, the young lad who made the 400m final…i had never heard of him until today…im all for promoting the big names, but sheesh lets not forget the others in the team in the process!
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is money the answer? reportedly 518 MILLION was spent in the last 4 years. Thats a huge budget already!
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Tony Abbott !
They blame that poor bugger for everything.
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Wonder why?
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Because he’s there ??????
Because they aren’t programmed to think otherwise ?
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Forget team GB, China, USA. We should be concerned with countries like France and Germany who have put in place expensive programs for their athletes and seem to be spending it in a more effective manner.
If we cannot afford to increase our budget for our athetes lets try and make sure the funds are allocated correctly and not just blown on the fatcats who are just along for the ride. I only hope that the poms don`t decide to target swimming next.
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Oh no! We haven’t won as many gold as we should have. Suck it up everyone and put problems in perspective.
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I BLAME THE CARBON TAX.
Wait…
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I blame violent video games. And the internet. Definitely the internet.
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A graph was going around showing that medal tallies have gone down since the introduction of the carbon pricing regime. Whatever you do, don’t tell Tony!
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I blame the refugees. Obviously they are overcrowding our pools and forcing our good, deserving Aussies out of it. (on another note, maybe we can get more Ethiopians to move here and start winning us medals in the running).
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I blame the teachers….
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Which way do people want it? Everyone is very quick to complain that these days kids are wussbags and everyone getting a prize is not good for kids. No one coming last, no one winning or being singled out, it is frequently ridiculed on here. We demand our kids toughen up, learn to lose, that the new way of doing things is ridiculous and molly coddling kids.
But….we come to the Olympics and suddenly it doesn’t matter if we are not winning gold? It’s all ok, as long as you try blah blah. We don’t want this attitude for our primary school kids but we do for our Olympians?
There is nothing wrong with striving to win, to be the best, and being disappointed when you don’t. It is a competition for god’s sake! A COMPETITION. YOU GO TO WIN.
Many of our athletes who didn’t win gold were heavily favoured. It is fair enough to be bitterly disappointed at not winning. Fact: we did much much better in the last three Olympics in the swimming. That we have flopped (no other word for it) this time is worthy of a post-mortem.
It is the media’s job to ask questions and if they glossed over what has been a colossal failure in the pool then they would not be doing their job.
I personally don’t think silver and bronze are anything to sniff at, and sportsmanship etc is important but at the end of the day it is a competition and we go to win. Don’t turn our Olympian’s into wussbags with excuses.
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Oh my goodness thank you for your sensible comment. This is what I have been thinking all along – why are people surprised? This is probably the first olympics where the product of the helicopter parenting generation are the athletes competing. That is to say, GEN Y!!!! So easy to predict this outcome in hindsight. Goodness only knows what is going to happen to this country at the hands of Gen Y. My personal opinion is that the olympics are the least of our worries as a nation with these mollycoddled kids at the helm…
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I’m glad you like my comment but this is not down to Gen Y. People forget how old Gen Y are getting – we are pushing 30 now. I’m 27. Gen Y have competed in Sydney, Athens and Beijing. Won the bulk of our medals in Beijing in the pool.
It has to be something else. Gen Y have been competing and winning for years. A decade now for some (Leisl Jones, Sally Pearson).
I’m not sure what it is but I don’t think it is Gen Y specific.
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I’m so sick of the Gen Y bashing. We will have to fix the mistakes of all the current clowns, so give us a break and go and do something more productive.
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So agree Original Guest. The day we stop striving for Gold and are happy to accept silver and bronze instead is the day the fight in this country callled Australia dies.
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Hey Mamamia!
I can’t read any of the articles as the banner for the Sapphires blocks basically the entire article.
Tried firefox, IE and Chrome. Same issue!
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I’m on Chrome and have been having the same issue. I installed adblocker a minute a go and the problem’s gone. (Sorry Mamamia!)
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Just FYI, you may find that the ad blocker disables galleries. I’ve had to disable adblocker on Mamamia, because the coding that makes the galleries work is similar to the stuff that makes ads work, and it can’t tell the difference (at least, not by default, and I can’t be bothered screwing round to fix it).
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Sorry guys – it’s a caching issue – do a hard refresh! Should fix it.
We’re working on it at our end.
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RockMelt is the answer
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Long Jumper Mitchell Watt slammed the media for their negativity and he was 100% right to do so. He is one of the best, if not the best, jumper in the world. Conditions were awful for jumping and No-one, not even the gold medalist did a PB, or even a SB. He wasn’t disappointed, he was happy and as he said, very few people know the hours and hours of hard work they put in, and a silver medal is an awesome achievement. The media need to be more realistic about our chances and not blow them out of proportion and make our athletes into something they are not, Magnusson being a perfect example. Ch 9 are appalling.
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Disagree. Magnusson is the perfect example of an athlete who has not lived up to expectations. Going into the Olympics he was the world record holder & he was very vocal in letting everyone know he was the man to beat. It wasn’t just the Australian media that were shocked when he didn’t win, the whole swimming community were shocked. I think Magnusson would be the first to admit that he did not have a great meet.
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BUT he only lost by 1/100th of a second. That is a tiny amount of time and if it had gone the other way he would have brought home a gold medal. Yes, he was arrogant about winning before hand but it’s still harsh to say that he’s not doing a good job when he was only 1/100th of a second away from gold.
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Yes that particular race was heartbreaking. I’m really referring to the 4 x 100 relay where he had the slowest split time among him team mates. From a 100 metre world record holder that is utterly bewildering.
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Worse than the way he swam was his conduct as the rest of the team finished the relay (sat down with his head in his hands not up with the rest of the team cheering on their teammate in the pool and then the interview conduct with Giann)
I was at the trials when he swam the 100m and om his post race interview he said he would win the gold and has been plastered all over my TV in Coles & Comm bank ads plus 60 minutes promoting himself as the future gold medal winner
Sorry I would rather Eamon who was the understated battler that actually made the final of the 50m free or Steph Rice who competed to her best even though she needed surgery
I also follow alot of these guys on twitter and was blown away that they are tweeting 2 hours before they are racing – errr focus!!!!!!
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Sot of related but did anyone see Grant Hackett’s serve at Magnussen?
‘Should have shown leadership, taken ownership’
This from a man who lied about trashing his apartment. Ugh.
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he even admitted that is was super nervous and did not sleep well the night before and it got the better of him. poor kid he is only 21
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I don’t know that I would do a great job fronting the media after such a crushing result…
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Australia has had an unlucky Olympics so far, a lot of Silver medals. But to maintain our past position we need to not just maintain spending on Olympic sports, but continually increase it. That is what other countries are doing and they are getting the success and passing us by. Selling the idea we need to increase spending is not going to be easy with the public though, not as easy has been with the UK (host’s always want to succeed) or China (publics got no real choice). Also, sports like AFL have been increasing taking a bigger slice of the sporting pie since the end of the Sydney Olympics, and they aren’t about the lay down.
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You’re that you are not going to be able to sell the idea that we need to spend more on the Olympics – reason why – because there are way more important things to spend money on. Things that matter such as health and education and funding sporting programs that cater for every child in Australia and not just a select few. I can’t see any flow on benefits from all that money – tourism dollars? No I don’t think do. Cheaper living costs for basics such as water and electricity – no didn’t think so.
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Wont let me edit but meant to say you’re right……
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Sure, we could divert all public money from sport, arts, entertainment and cultural events and use it for health and education. We would be the longest lived and most educated country in the world, but we would wish we were dead because it would be so boring. There needs to be balance, and judging by how the public are not too happy with our standing in this Olympics, possibly the balance isn’t right and more money should be spent on Olympic sports to keep the masses happy (not just you).
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‘Australia has had an unlucky Olympics so far, a lot of Silver medals’. Unlucky??? A lot of silver medals is awesome!! These are all just games, they are even CALLED the Olympic Games! No cattle stations riding on these, not even any prizemoney.
We (our Gov’t) throw an obscene amount of cash at games!! I absolutely agree with Areo27holidays, there are WAY more important things to spend money on. While kids continue to be abused, women are bashed by their partners, the public health system badly needs more money spent on it, people are living on the streets, or in poverty, or addicted to drugs, or gambling… need I go on? Surely these things are more important than GAMES??!!
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People argue that we need to teach our children that coming 2nd,3rd,4th etc is ok. I don’t think any athlete competing at a professional level would win with this attitude. There is a difference between playing sport and playing at a professional level. Australia isn’t as successful at this Games as other countries – FACT. We need to look at why and change tactics- wanting to win and be the best is one part if it. The media are being realistic. Olympic athletes do have a lot of pressure but if you can’t handle the heat get out of the kitchen – it comes with the territory. The same as in any industry you CHOOSE to work it – there are good and bad aspects.
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But why is it so important to win – at anything?? Yes I definitely believe there is merit in trying your best at whatever you do – but what is so desirable about winning and being the best. Why is it so important for Australia to analyse what went wrong and change tactics? Why in the scheme of things does it matter????? I really don’t get it!
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In everyday life yes but this is the Olympics! I really don’t think athletes at this level go into training thinking ‘does it really matter’ if they thought this they are in the wrong job. Top sportspeople need the competitive drive to win or else they don’t and they are out of a job.
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I have been bed ridden with the flu since the Olympics started so have watched an awful lot of coverage. All night, and rewatching the highlights every day. tragic I know …..
I Don’t know if there is one entity to “blame” as such for our perceived poor performance….I am sure each individual performance will attribute many different aspects to their “failure” but I will say this …
The huge media attention on our athletes Has increased our expectations of them . Take the treatment of James Magnussen. Channel 9 featured him so exclusively during the swimming coverage. The played and replayed all of his swims, interviews, discussed his results, his future prospects continually. When he failed to get into the final of the 50m freestyle, (not even his specialised race) it was the only thing the commentators talked about in both the commentary of the race and the news stories and breaks. The fact that Aemon Sullivan was the Silver medal holder from Beiging and actually DID qualify for the final was barely mentioned…. It was just disgraceful.
The media build these kids up, pump both the viewer and the athlete full of false expectations, over analysis, huge expectation and commercialism TO MAKE STORIES,TO MAKE NEWS, TO FILL AIR TIME…. And then don’t take any responsibility for the failure….
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How about we aim to beat other countries in literacy, quality of education, quality of healthcare, life expectancy and so on before we start worrying about who can swim the fastest.
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I’m right behind you on this one, Anonymous – I’d rather be a citizen of a country that excels in brains, not brawn.
Olympics. Meh.
I know I’m very likely going to get slammed for this – but … is it possibly the, er, generation?
As in Gen Y, wanting it ALL? And having a crying jag and a tanty, chucking all the teddies out of the pram when the title of “The Best” doesn’t come their way?
I was shocked when I was told today that ALL children get a medal/trophy/prize in whatever they join – soccer, athletics, swimming. Nobody is “singled-out” or feted by being, gasp, the Winner!
Heaven forbid.
Is this true?
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Xanthe, I have read your comments on here several times about Gen Y and, frankly, they lean towards the offensive sometimes.
You can tend to make sweeping generalisations about Gen Y, and whether or not those generalisations have any merit, is irrelevant in the face of this simple fact: Gen Y are now moving into their 20s and 30s and are not going away. Making sweeping statements and eye rolling at “Gen Y” is not going to change “Gen Y”. Like it or not, Gen Y is going to be leading nations, ASX listed companies, etc in the next 10-15 years.
Everyone, of all generations, needs to learn to work together and accept and adapt to one another rather than attacking how: “Gen Y want it ALL and chuck tantrums when they don’t get it” or “Baby boomers/early Gen Xers got it the best out of all of us because they had free university education!”.
It’s really not going to make the generational differences go away the more you espouse your thoughts about Gen Y.
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I get your point, Anonymous.
The gen differences *are* here to stay, no matter what my opinion is.
You are right – Gen-y-ers will be running the country soon, and perhaps because they want “the best” All The TIme, Australia will be a definite world leader in many, many fields.
I mean no disrespect to any generation at all.
But…couldn’t I just have a leeeetle whinge? Eh? Not to sneer at anybody, but just in the spirit of the dinner party – there are always dissenters in any debate. And it’s always the other side, isn’t it?
I did admit you’re right, though. And Sarah who also replied to me…
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Feel free to have a little whinge, we all do it! I had just noticed you had made comments across many posts (several dinner parties) about Gen Y and I felt a tad defensive, being a Gen Y and all that
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Umm, no, most of gen x didn’t get a free education at uni. I very clearly remember when HECS came in, mostly because I really resented the ALP for it.
I do get sick of gen y bashing though. Two of my kids are gen y.
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I said Baby Boomer/ EARLY Gen X.
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Before you blame Gen Y for wanting to be the best, remember something – it’s the older generations that raised us.
When I was younger we all received medals for playing in my basketball competition, the runners up got a trophy and the winners got a bigger trophy. But it’s wasn’t my generations choice to be given participation medals.
People don’t just grow up expecting to be the best at something, they have to learn it from somewhere.
The athletes in these games have trained for years, some their entire lives, to be the best in their sport. Missing out by such small margins (as most of our silver and bronze medals have been) would be absolutely heart breaking after all that effort. Second is an amazing achievement and I don’t think any of them would deny that, they were just aiming for gold.
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Just another reason for the ‘Gen Y haters’ to jump on their soapbox. “Oohh, Gen Y are soooo selfish” get over yourself.
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Amy, I am so not a “Gen-Y hater.”
I expressed an opinion, is all.
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Xanthe,I have 3 gen Y kids. One week ago my husband had a heart attack.These gen Y’ers have been nothing but wonderful. In taking over the family business, paying bills out their own pockets and running around doing anything that was needed without anyone asking anything of them. I could not be more grateful or proud. There are tanty throwers in every generation.
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This sounds great in theory and we should aim to achieve academically. It annoys me when the government spends millions to pump up dead industries such as manufacturing (car industry, looking at you), rather than spend the money on educating workers into more sustainable long term jobs. BUT, a society needs more than that. They need arts, entertainment, culture and sports. With out these things we are dull and boring and not a nice country to live.
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These medalists, from Australia and other countries, are all elite athletes. There is no shame in coming second (or third or fourth) to them. It’s amazing to even get to the Olympic level, let alone win a medal in your event. Why do we have to find someone to place the blame on?
It really bothers me that winning seems to be so important to so many Australians. :\ It’s such a poor attitude to be passing on to our children.
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If you are an elite athlete coming 3rd or 4th is failure, unless you are building to come first in future. That’s reality, ask them. But the public doesn’t need to throw it in their face.
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Hi,
I am writing from Pakistan and believe me I was also wondering what is wrong with Aussies this time? I mean if Argentina can draw with Australia in Men Hockey then surely there is some thing wrong. Australia is viewed more sport oriented in Pakistan then USA or China. But this time they really disappointed.
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