With all the intense hype Down Under about the London Olympics, it is obvious that Australians not only love competing against the English, but are looking forward to a contest on British soil. Seriously.
Many of the 410 athletes on Australia’s Olympic squad are already in and around Britain or close by at training camps. For those who remain, along with the rest of this sports-crazy population of 22.3 million, there is growing anticipation that the Aussies who will join their already 200,000 or so compatriots who live and work in London will do well in the Olympic medal count.
And, better yet, if they do it against the Brits in close finishes.
Photo: AFP
The long sporting rivalry between the countries was spawned by cricket and the so-called Ashes series staged roughly every two years since the 1880s. Australia dominated the series for almost two decades until England won the last two series back-to-back. Throw in rugby — most Aussies recall the Wallabies beating England to win the 1991 World Cup in London and then losing to the English on home soil in the 2003 final — and there is that competitive, often surly edge between the countries even when the Olympics are not on.
Laurie Lawrence, a former national swimming coach who will be spending his eighth Olympics in the athletes village as an activities support coordinator with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), did not pull any punches regarding the rivalry in a telephone interview.
“Every time the Aussies meet the Poms,” Lawrence said, using Australia’s colloquial name for the English, “we want to beat them. That is our heritage. We started with 11 convict ships that the Poms sent the dregs of society over on. Now it’s a case of just wanting to let them know the ‘dregs’ are still here.”
Expanding slightly on Lawrence’s version, here is a brief history: Between 1788 and 1868, about 160,000 convicts were sent to Australia from Britain, commencing with the “First Fleet,” which carried 780 convicts to Botany Bay at Sydney. The majority were poor and illiterate and records indicate eight out of 10 prisoners were convicted for larceny or petty theft.
The seeds of the rivalry between the Colonial masters and the far-flung former subjects started right there. At London this month, British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan and AOC president John Coates hope to pick each other’s pockets, depending on the medal results between the countries. Coates and Moynihan, rowing enthusiasts who first met at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, have some champagne riding on it.
“We have bottles of Bollinger on total medals won, and a magnum on the golds,” Coates says.
The AOC is not issuing total medal predictions for London, just aiming for a top-five finish in gold and in overall medals counts, and to have athletes on the podium in 14 or more sports.
Australia won 58 overall medals at its home Olympics in Sydney in 2000, including 16 golds, to finish fourth behind the US, Russia and China. At Athens in 2004, that total dropped to 49 overall medals, but the number of golds increased to 17. In 2008 at Beijing, Australia’s gold medal total dropped to 14 among 46 overall medals. Britain, which has roughly three times the population of Australia, won 19 golds to finish fourth overall — two spots ahead of the Australians.
The old rivalry will not take long to get started at London — the Opals, as the Australian women’s basketball team is known, take on Britain in the last match of the first full day of competition on July 28. Led by Seattle Storm star Lauren Jackson, Australia, which has won the silver medal the past three games, should get the visitors off to a winning start in the 17-day Olympic grudge match against the hosts.
There will be rivalries in the Olympic pool between the countries, and diver Matt Mitcham’s attempt to repeat as 10m platform gold medalist will no doubt face a major test from young British star Tom Daley — as well as the Chinese.
However, the most anticipated slice of Anglo-Australian competition will come between cyclists Anna Meares and Victoria Pendleton in the sprint, which has emerged as the greatest rivalry in track cycling.
The two have not spoken much to each other since Australian Meares crashed with Pendleton on the track and was relegated at the world championships in Bordeaux, France, in 2006.
“I was really annoyed,” Pendleton says about the encounter. “She likes to push the rules. I don’t.”
Since then, their head-to-heads have looked something like this: Pendleton beats Meares in the 2008 Beijing gold medal final and again at the world championship semi-finals the same year; Meares beats Pendleton in the Manchester World Cup semi-finals last year and again at the world championships in the Netherlands; Meares beats Pendleton in the semi-finals at a World Cup meet in London in February.
“I don’t think I’ve seen three matches [so fast]. We both paid for it,” Meares said at the time.
And at the world championships in Melbourne, Pendleton beats Meares 2-1 after a crash and a relegation in the semis.
“All sportspeople push the limits,” Meares said of her dust-ups with Pendleton. “Sometimes, the lines get crossed and the people who make the judgement on that are the race officials.”
Next up, with Meares and Pendleton level at 1-1 in races this year, the “Pringle” velodrome in London: women’s sprint qualifying on Aug. 5, quarter-finals on Aug. 6 and the semi-finals and final on Aug. 7.
With just one more medal in London, the AOC says Meares, who is training in Italy, will become the first female cyclist from any country to win four Olympic track medals, and the first to win a medal at three games.
Overall, the velodrome will provide the biggest dose of the Australian and British rivalry. After Australia won five golds and nine medals overall at Athens in 2004, the British won 14 medals to Australia’s sole silver at Beijing four years later. A compelling duel was set up in London at the world championships in Melbourne, when Britain won five golds to Australia’s three, but Australia won medals in eight of the 10 Olympic events and Britain in six.
Lawrence, whose swimmers set 23 world records while under his tutelage, is like many Australians who relish the intensity of their battles with the English, but do not usually carry Meares versus Pendleton-style animosity off the playing fields. A motivational speaker whose zany actions and offbeat sense of humor means his listeners never know quite what to expect, Lawrence becomes slightly serious when he talks about the upcoming games. He believes the British will put on an excellent Olympics — maybe not as great as Sydney in 2000, but pretty exceptional.
“I honestly believe that these are going to be one of the greatest Games,” Lawrence says. “London is one of the greatest cities of the world, the British people are great supporters of sport. It’ll be their home Olympics, and I think it’s going to be absolutely sensational.”
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set