Moved Thread Cathy Freeman, Most overrated Gold Medal Ever?

[Kram]

The pressure on sprinters going in favoured to win must be insane, thousands of hours of grueling training from a kid all for a race that lasts less than a minute.. But Freeman's race at home would have been something else. I think Bruce might have described it as carrying the weight of a nation on her shoulders.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I don't think 'just another nobody' was an option.

Was it Bronte Campbell that bombed in Rio after being world champ? Eamon Sullivan did it too in Beijing breaking the WR in the heats then missing the medals. These are footnotes more than anything.

Cathy Freeman lit the torch in the opening ceremony then won gold in a track event (rare for Australia), as an Aboriginal person, dressed in a bodysuit, with all the world watching.

I'm no athletics guy but she ran 50.31 in round 2 (fastest), 50.01 in the semi final (fastest) and then 49.11 in the final (obviously fastest). If she had run a similar time in the final she would've missed the medals with the top 5 all finishing in under 50 seconds. Had she bottled it and run a slow time it would've been a huge deal given the lead up. It's not like Atlanta where with the spotlight off her she ran a faster time but Perec broke the Olympic record. It was Freeman's to lose in Sydney.

Freeman pushed 4 others to do their PB's. It was her 2nd fastest time ever, only bettered by her Atlanta time where she ran 48.63 because 1) she was pushed by Marie-Jose Perec, the best 400m runner post the Eastern bloc drug fuelled regimes, and 2) the weather.

Atlanta was 30+ degrees every night of the athletics, in the middle of their summer in late July and 25th September is early spring in Sydney and it was about 18 degrees most nights at the Olympic Stadium. I went to every evening session of the athletics. Hot weather is good for sprinters, bad for long distance runners and vice versa.

In the doco on the ABC celebrating the 20th anniversary of her win, she said for the first time that I had heard her say it, that she was disappointed by the time, she wanted to run faster and thought she had. I think she said she wanted to run her Atlanta time.

 

[the_interloper]

I don’t really buy “pressure” in Athletic events, when it’s just you against the clock at the end of the day. You’ve either done the most work combined with the best physical attributes or you haven’t. They’re not performing a skill like a gymnast/pole vaulter/ice skater.

I don’t get that exited for events that showcase who can exercise the best.

The point is being able to perform at your best at the crucial time, that's really the point of why we watch all sport isn't it? Otherwise we could just watch everyone train.

 

[Gough]

The point is being able to perform at your best at the crucial time, that's really the point of why we watch all sport isn't it? Otherwise we could just watch everyone train.

It was no coincidence Australia lost the final Test of a couple of the Ashes tours where we smote the Poms mightily. Departure lounge syndrome they used to call it.

 

[Caesar]

I don’t really buy “pressure” in Athletic events, when it’s just you against the clock at the end of the day. You’ve either done the most work combined with the best physical attributes or you haven’t. They’re not performing a skill like a gymnast/pole vaulter/ice skater.

plenty of skill involved in track events; physical attributes aside, all involve some requirement to optimise technique and/or tactics

 

[the_interloper]

It was no coincidence Australia lost the final Test of a couple of the Ashes tours where we smote the Poms mightily. Departure lounge syndrome they used to call it.

Yeah I do remember we used to get criticised for losing dead rubbers, that's searching for areas to criticise that's for sure.

They had to play a county match the day after regaining the Ashes in 1989, we lost the toss and fielded. Half cut cricketers everywhere, dropped catches, general hilarity!

 

[Scotland]

I have very little appreciation for tactics in swimming and athletics, probably because I was never much good at either. Longer races where someone sets the pace etc. sure but something like a 100 or 200m race I just look at it and think 'jump in the pool, swim as fast as you can, touch the end first'. Thankfully people like Raelene Boyle and Ian Thorpe commentate and explain the nuances.

 

[Wallaby]

It's true there are very few tactics in a sprint race - it's all about execution. However, the techniques are so refined that the difficulty of executing them at maximum effort is quite high, and the athletes spend literally years perfecting them.

Everybody believes they can run, jump and throw - and they can, to some extent. However, with our understanding of physics, the human body, energy production etc, we can make humans run faster, throw longer and jump further than is 'natural'.

I always say I can take any kid (up to about age 14) who is a reasonable discus thrower, but has never been trained, and put 5 metres on their PB in 1-2 training sessions.