Chapter Fourteen: The eve of the Sydney 2000 Olympics
September wasn’t far away now and the hype was really beginning to build up in Sydney. There was constant media coverage and commentary on television and radio as well as general discussion in the street about the city and venues getting ready, with people questioning whether our appalling transport system would hold up for the flood of people due to arrive. Selection trials for various sports were still taking place and special television shows were being aired, covering the journeys of certain athletes in the lead up to selection and the Olympics (Meagan was one of those selected for this show).
In August, I was really pleased when an opportunity arose, thanks to some funding from NSWIS, for a handful of us to go on an early training camp to Melbourne. This meant getting out of Sydney and away from all the pre-Olympic activity and Olympic focussed conversation. It was all anyone spoke to me about it seemed, especially when they knew they were talking to someone who would be competing. Four of us NSWIS scholarship holders were selected for the Olympics – Meagan, Michelle, Mehmet and myself. A training camp in Melbourne meant we could focus solely on training and have more quality recovery time available for activities like stretching, massages and saunas – important things we would often leave out due to lack of time in our normal daily routines. For me, it also meant taking unpaid leave from work but fortunately the Fosters Foundation gave every Australian Team member a small grant, so this helped towards some of the bills and mortgage repayments while I was away.
The Victorian weightlifters were surprisingly welcoming towards us, considering the rivalry between NSW and Victoria, which in my opinion is too often promoted by those who should be trying to build unity rather than division. I made some good friends during this time.
Having a taste of what it was like to be a full time athlete was fantastic. I loved training in the ‘old’ Hawthorn weightlifting club, which was under the grandstands at the Hawks (AFL club) training ground at Glenferrie Oval. Training twice a day was a lot more comfortable when we were able to rest in between. We quickly settled into a new routine.
We were staying at the California Hotel, walking distance from the gym. So we got up at a respectable hour, had breakfast, then walked to the gym, usually through the back streets past the grand and beautiful old houses of Hawthorn. This was a great warm up on those cool Melbourne mornings. We then trained intensely but at a leisurely pace. After training we had time to stretch well, before walking back to our hotel the longer way, up the main Glenferrie Road, usually stopping for some lunch in one of their numerous cafes along the way. After lunch we would rest for a couple of hours, watching TV, reading magazines, chatting or sleeping, before heading back to gym around 4pm for a late afternoon session for a couple of hours, which was usually a heavier session. Having an earlier start for our second training session of the day, meant finishing earlier than we were used to back in Sydney, enabling us to get back to our hotel at a reasonable hour for dinner before retiring for the night.
We threw in an extra session on Tuesdays for good measure, so were now doing 10 sessions per week. On our days off training we would mainly recover by resting in our room, going for a leisurely short walk, watching movies, listening to music or getting a massage. We didn’t get out much, it wasn’t meant to be a holiday.
Michelle, Meagan and I were sharing a room and we all got along well and became really close, having lots of laughs along the way. I had a video camera with me and sometimes we would video some of our sessions and play them back in the room later. (This was the days before mobile phones had high quality photo/video ability.) Watch some of our light morning sessions here. On one occasion someone used said video camera to capture evidence of some snoring which was taking place in our room at night!
It was great listening to advice and stories from other experienced or retired lifters when they were around. A former World and Olympic champion and record holder from Bulgaria, Sevi Marinov (then Assistant Coach at Hawthorn Weightlifting Club), talked to us about dealing with nerves before a major event. He told us not to worry about getting nervous, he always got nervous, even when he had been lifting for years and when he won his Gold medals. He said “it means you care” and “when you stop being nervous it’s probably time to retire”.
I made a pact with Meagan that we would be really good with what we ate during our training camp, avoiding treats, sweets and deserts so we could train even more optimally. Neither of us had to worry about our weight, but we figured a good diet would help us train and recover better. My training was going well, on track for PB’s and I was feeling very positive and confident about the Olympics.
The rest of the Australian team all joined us from 1st September 2000 as we went into an official training camp. We got to know the other members of the wider team a bit better, mainly the interstate lifters, as the Victorians were generally staying at their homes, rather than in the hotel with us. Being only four girls on the team, we tended to stick together. We bonded well, had fun and everything was going to plan.
Due to the number of us, we relocated our training venue from the Hawthorn Weightlifting Club to across the other side of Glenferrie Oval in the main hall of the Hawthorn Aquatic & Leisure Centre. It got interesting on a Friday night when some of us were going heavy and an aerobics class started up at the other end of the hall, with the music pumping. I didn’t mind it, I liked a bit of music to pick me up, although we weren’t really used to this and it may have been a little distracting for some. Olympic weightlifting gyms were usually quiet and when someone was attempting a heavy weight, close to PB, usually everyone would stop for a few seconds and patiently watch quietly, like in a competition environment. It was a show of respect. It was a bit awkward doing this when there was loud music blaring across the hall but we coped.
The Polish Weightlifting Team joined our camp and I must admit it was hard not to feel discouraged when watching their 58kg lifter who was only 19 years old, attempting weights which were well beyond me. Still, I always knew realistically I was not a medal contender like she was. I felt a little embarrassed at how weak I was compared to her, but I excused myself, knowing she was a full time athlete all year round and despite her young age, she had been training a lot longer than I had.
On the subject of my realism about not being a medal contender, some people outside the sport tried to encourage me saying “just be positive, and you might win a medal”. But what many people don’t understand is that weightlifting is not a sport where you can pull off a freak performance on the day and blitz the field with a 20kg PB (well, not if you are clean anyway). It can take months of training to improve by just 2.5kg or 5kg, so I knew that when the world’s number one ranked lifter from China was lifting 135kg in the Clean & Jerk and my best was only 100kg, it was obviously unrealistic to think I could reach that weight – well not that year anyway! Why was Australia so far behind the leading countries? Mainly this comes down to the culture, and by this I mean our ‘easy life’, in Australia and very little support given to Weightlifting. In some Eastern European and Asian countries, weightlifting is their national sport (as, say, swimming or cricket is here). They have thousands of registered weightlifters in China (at the time in Australia we were lucky to have 500) and that much competition inevitably breeds success – I saw this just on my small level when training with Meagan as we really pushed each other. Overseas, particularly in poorer countries in Eastern Europe and Asia, their success is rewarded very generously as well. Athletes are given financial incentives such as cash, cars or houses and the national squads are provided with an income so they can train full time, all year round. Then if they reach World Champion level, they are set for life. For poorer countries, this is a pretty good incentive to train hard and do well. Not only are the lifters taken care of but also their family was looked after.
On top of this, virtually every country in the world participates in weightlifting, unlike say beach volleyball, cricket or swimming where perhaps only a handful of countries compete. (Not every country in the world has an Olympic Swimming pool or a beach to train on). So this all means there is a lot more competition in Weightlifting. When I went to the World Championships in 1999, virtually every country in the world had a team there, even small, remote countries I had never heard of.
Being the realistic person that I am, I had no delusions about my potential result, especially as the 58kg category I was competing in would likely be one of the most popular and competitive weight categories. What about Dean Lukin winning Olympic Gold or Robert Kabbas winning silver, you might ask? True, they were awesome results but many people forget that year (1984) the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympic Games in LA. So I don’t mean to take anything away from them as they truly deserved their medals and it was good fortune for them, but the reality is, there wasn’t a full field of athletes at the Olympic Games that year. Back when I was lifting I wished we’d have a similar fate, banning all the drug cheating nations (and there were a few who had a tragic record!) We nearly got our wish at Commonwealth Games later on.
Towards the end of our training camp, when we received our team gear from the AOC it got very real. We excitedly unpacked our uniforms and tried them all on. There was a lot of stuff: tracksuits, T-shirts, shorts, shoes, opening & closing ceremony uniforms, swimming costume, socks, lifting suits, jumpers, a hat, including bags and a suitcase to put it all in. It was all really good quality, in great colours and comfortable design, thanks to Nike and the AOC.
Before we knew it, the training camp was over, we were packing our bags and heading to Melbourne airport to catch our flight to Sydney.
Now we were ready.
Coming up next – Chapter 15: Arrival at the Olympics