Marathon runner Scott Westcott realises Olympic dream with debut at age 40
SOME people jump out of planes when they turn 40. Some splash out on a Porsche, or a couple of tickets to Bali. Scott Westcott got himself to an Olympic Games.
SOME people jump out of planes when they turn 40. Some splash out on a Porsche, or a couple of tickets to Bali. Scott Westcott got himself to an Olympic Games.
The year was 2015 and with his 40th birthday arriving, Westcott got a leave pass to fly to Germany and run in the Berlin marathon.
It turned out to be a good present.
Aged 40 and two days, Westcott crossed the line in a sharp 2:15.30 and the time, as it would unfold, earned him a spot on his first ever Australian Olympic team.
The father of three runs on Sunday in Rio, now a month shy of his 41st birthday.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think at the age 41 would be the time to be debuting at the Olympics,” Westcott said.
“That was never part of the plan.”
This is not an average Joe makes the Olympics story.
Westcott has been an elite runner for most of his adult life but for a long time he thought his ‘Scott makes the Olympics story’ was never going to happen.
In fact, he’d even given up on it.
After dreaming of becoming an Olympian at primary school, Westcott ran qualifying times for Sydney in the 5000m and 10000m, and again for Athens in 2004 in the marathon.
He again ran a marathon qualifying time for Beijing, but on each occasion, he missed selection due to Australian athletics tough criteria.
“Those two Olympics (Athens and Beijing) I guess I was hanging on it pretty tight, really wanting it to happen. Things didn’t really work out,” Westcott said.
A fourth in the 2006 Commonwealth Games would have to be the career highlight.
“In 2008 I was 33 years old and in a marathon, that’s peaking kind of territory,” Westcott said.
“After Beijing came and went I thought: ‘oh well, I will roll up my sleeves, get stuck into my career and my family. I had a young boy’.
“After Beijing, running certainly took a back seat.”
A job with NSW athletics and more kids took up plenty of time but Westcott kept training every day, and he had one more crack at posting a time for the London Games. It didn’t happen and Westcott unofficially hung up the competitive running shoes.
The passing of his greatest supporter, father Lawrie, in 2014 saw Westcott hitting the road more to process the grief and with years of training hardwired into his body, the Newcastle-based runner’s fitness grew and grew.
The idea of a trip to Berlin was hatched. He told everyone it was for a birthday present but in the back of his mind that Olympic thing began to itch again,
“I was initially drawn to it as a 40th birthday thing,” Westcott said.
“But as I got fitter and fitter I had that glimmer. It got a little bit brighter and brighter in my little lead-in races around NSW. Each one got better and better and I thought: ‘geez, I am in not bad shape here’.
“I went (to Berlin) and my public challenge was to beat Moneghetti’s 2.17:40 odd time for the Masters 40-plus record. That’s what I told everyone.
“But by the time I was on the start line I thought: ‘If I play this right I will have an Olympic qualifier’.”
He posted a qualifying time and for the next six months he sat back and watched young guns try to beat it.
“By the time April rolled around, I was a bit beside myself, thinking: ‘Here I am at 40, sitting in the box seat for Olympic selection’.”
Westcott won selection and will line up in Rio on Sunday. Fittingly for a 40-year-old dad, he says he runs more “sensibly” these days, and he knows now the best expectation to place on himself is none at all.
After all those years of trying to make the Olympics, it was only after he let go that it happened.
Westcott knows his dad would be hugely proud, and he’ll think of him during those tough last ten kilometres.
“When it’s time to grit the teeth, as he did, then I will be remembering him. He’ll be there with me,” Westcott said.
It’s always a long wait for the male marathoners at an Olympics. Their 42km race is the last event.
Westcott doesn’t mind. What’s two weeks when you’ve waited 40 years.