Beijing triple Olympic champion Stephanie Rice to be inducted into Sport Australia Hall of Fame
Three events: three world records, three gold medals. Stephanie Rice made swimming look so easy when she dominated the 2008 Beijing Olympic but as she recalls, it was anything but smooth sailing.
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More than a decade on, Stephanie Rice has almost forgotten what it was really like when she won her three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
Like everyone else, her first recollections of that magical week where she became the new darling of Australia swimming are that everything was perfect.
Three events: three world records and three trips to the top of the podium after leaving her rivals dead in the water and melting the hearts of Australia with her bubbly personality.
She made it look all so easy as she won the 400m individual medley, 200m individual medley and 4x200m freestyle finals, but in truth it was anything but.
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Struck down by illness and struggling with the enormous weight of expectation, it was both the best and worst of times.
“In terms of execution, it was perfect and I don’t think you could have written the story any better,” Rice said.
“It sort of looked like I was just cruising through without a care in the world, however, behind the scenes, it was so far from perfect.
“I just remember it being a blur and everything happening so quickly because it’s not just the swimming, it’s the warms ups, the swim downs, getting to the pool, the press conferences, the drug testing, there’s just so much that goes into it.
“You don’t really get a chance to relax and I was really sick, especially before the 200m medley, then before I knew it, it was all over and I was back in Australia.
“But when I look back on it now, that’s what makes it so special because you can prove you can do things under so much pressure, so it really was an amazing week.”
Although it was 11 years ago, Rice has never really stopped to reflect on her incredible achievements until now, after she was chosen to be inducted into The Sport Australia Hall of Fame next month.
With Olympic, Commonwealth, World Championship and Pan Pacific medals in her collection, her place in the pantheon of Australian swimming was already assured, but the recognition she’s getting after leaving the pool means as much to her as anything she did in the water.
“For me, the nicest thing about this is being able to bring my family and my coach and all the people who were part of that journey back together,” Rice said.
“It’s seven years since I stopped swimming so to get the chance to reminiscence is really nice because I’ve been working so hard on creating a new life after sport that I sometimes forget how the things I did impacted on people in ways that I never knew.”
Rice has developed a successful career in television and marketing and is about to embark on an ambitious project to give something back to the sport that made her famous, launching an Olympic swimming academy in India, a country that has never won an Olympic medal in the pool.
“That’s been a real passion for me for years now,” Rice said.
“I really want to have an impact on improving their swimming ability, obviously at the Olympic level but also at the grassroots, with learn to swim and swim safety because it’s a massive issue in India.
“That’s my first and probably only project I’ll do in swimming. Australia already has so many great coaches and programs so there’s not a lot I can do here, but in somewhere like India, hopefully I can make a difference.”
Stephanie Rice will be inducted into The Sport Australia Hall of Fame at the Induction and Awards Gala on Thursday 10th October 2019.