Australia’s swimmers have admitted they buckled under pressure and underestimated how much their rivals had improved at the London Games after the squad picked up just a solitary gold as part of a 10-medal haul in the pool.
“As much as you think you’re ready for it, the difference between world championships and the Olympics is a hundred times more pressure,” freestyle specialist Eamon Sullivan told reporters on Thursday.
“We under-prepared for the expectations of the pressure and the experience of the Olympics and, unfortunately, it’s a bad time to learn lessons,” he added. “But for the next Olympics, if it’s the same team, it’ll be a different result.”
Photo: AFP
A powerhouse at previous Games, the swimming team usually gets the country off to a flying start in the first week of the Olympics, often contributing a major share of Australia’s medals.
The lone success at the London Aquatics Centre, in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, was considered a catastrophe for a team which only four years earlier in Beijing had won six golds and 20 medals in the pool.
Australia finished 10th on the overall medals table at the July 27 to Aug. 12 Games with seven golds, 16 silvers and 12 bronzes.
“We’ve been obsessed with gold and other medals have lost their value,” argued Cate Campbell, one of the successful women’s relay team. “I can’t see the shame in having one other person in the entire world beating you.”
“It’s a tough field out there, everyone is racing incredibly fast, the world has taken a gigantic leap in swimming,” Campbell said. “We’re seeing world records from the [now banned] supersuits being broken, which lots of us thought wouldn’t happen in our lifetimes. It’s happened in a few short years.”
However, Australia’s poor return has prompted officials to launch a thorough review of what went wrong in London.
Sullivan said Australia had been “caught napping,” somewhat of an understatement considering the last time they failed to win a single individual swimming medal was at the 1976 Montreal Games.
He also said that negative press had made things harder for a team no longer able to look to titans such as Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett to lead them at major meetings.
“The younger guys do read the media and take it to heart,” Sullivan said. “It can really affect their emotional state and makes it hard to get back up when it feels like everyone’s against you. At the end of the day, we did the best we could. That’s all we could ask for.”
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was