Australia’s Moscow Olympic team finally formally welcomed home on historic day marred by Ley speech
The Australian team that was picked for the 1980 Moscow Olympics have finally been formally welcomed home 45 years too late. And the tone-deaf speech of the Opposition Leader couldn’t spoil the moment.
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Not even a ‘tone deaf’ speech from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley could spoil one of the most emotional homecomings in Australian Olympic sporting history.
Almost half a century later than it should have happened, the federal parliament formally welcomed home the Australian team that was picked for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Dozens of team members - proudly wearing their green and gold Australian blazers they took to Moscow - filed into the gallery at the House of Representatives on Wednesday to hear Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcome home a team that was vilified for defying the government’s demands to boycott.
“Looking back, it is little wonder that many still bear scars from those days,” Albanese said.
“That only makes the efforts and success of the Australian team at those Games all the more extraordinary.
“Australia won nine medals: including gold for Michelle Ford in the women’s 800m freestyle and gold in the men’s 4 x 100m medley.
“These were Australia’s first gold medals since the Munich Olympics in 1972.
“On this 45th anniversary we recognise all you have achieved - and acknowledge all you have overcome.”
For the athletes and their families, the belated welcome home ended 45 years of suffering and torment.
Because they went against the government’s wishes to boycott Moscow in protest at the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan, team members were subjected to vile abuse and even death threats.
Many have been haunted for years by what they experienced, including the athletes who didn’t go because their sporting federations buckled under the pressure, so emotions were high when they reunited in the nation’s capital.
Ford spoke on behalf of the team at a function following the PM’s formal address in the parliament, saying she felt a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.
“We’ve held this for over four decades. We were voiceless. This is why this moment is so important,” she said.
“It is a recognition of our pain. It is a celebration of our achievements and the acknowledgment of an exceptional group of athletes. After four decades of silence, it is time to pull it all out of the cupboard and come to terms with what we endured.”
Among the other athletes who were in Canberra for the historic announcement was swimmer Ron McKeon, the father of Olympians Emma and David, who came along with their mother to support their dad.
Emma, Australia’s greatest Olympian with 14 medals including six gold, said she always admired her father for competing at Moscow, even though he rarely spoke about his experiences.
“Being here today with him we just feel really proud,” Emma said.
“He didn’t really share a lot of these stories because he always wanted to paint the Olympics in a positive light because the Olympics gave him so much and he fought to be there with the other athletes.”
Ron McKeon said he had been moved by the welcome home.
“It was really warm and heartfelt,” he said. “It made a lot of us feel very proud that the Prime Minister could stand up and deliver that.”
But not everyone was as enthusiastic about the reply from Ley, whose speech was greeted by stunned silence after she said she supported the decision by the government of the day to demand a boycott.
“The decision made by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to support the US-led boycott was the right one – and history has judged it so,” Ley said.
“We would not send athletes to an Olympics in Moscow today and the Australian Government was right to support a boycott then.
“That decision – correct as it was – takes nothing away from the Australians who did compete.”
Her comments did not go down well with the team members in attendance.
Many, speaking confidentially, were furious with her remarks, accusing her of politicising the event and being ‘tone deaf’ to the feelings of the athletes who suffered so much.
Some did agree to comment but were guarded in their criticism because they didn’t want her comment to spoil their day.
Jim Barry, who was the deputy manager of the 1980 team, challenged the accuracy of her claims.
“I want to get the Hansard report in my hands and then I’ll probably write a note because Fraser himself said it was wrong in the end, didn’t he?” Barry said.
Ford said she was caught out by the tone of Ley’s speech.
“There was an element of surprise there,” Ford said. That’s not what this acceptance was all about.
“We weren’t here for an apology. It’s been 45 years, so we just wanted to reconcile and move on.
“For the 50 Olympians who were sitting there with their families, this was the moment to take that weight off.”
Ron McKeon said he was taken aback by Ley’s comments.
“It was disappointing. I understand the politics but I just didn’t think she had to say that. It was bizarre.”
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