Tokyo Olympics: Matt Wilson reveals the heartbreak behind his selection story
Two years ago he was the world record holder, two weeks ago his nan passed away, two days ago he missed the cut for Tokyo – now Matt Wilson is on the team.
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Matt Wilson never let on how devastated he was when he missed out on the Australian swimming squad to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
He had won the 200m breaststroke final at the trials, inside the official Olympic qualifying standard, but was not picked because of Swimming Australia’s ruthless selection policy.
He was just 17 so time was on his side but he made a promise to himself and his family from the Blue Mountains that he would get himself on the team for Tokyo.
Wilson’s grandmother Pam was his biggest supporter but in January this year she discovered her time was running out.
Diagnosed with incurable cancer and told she only had a year to live, her dying wish was to see him make the Olympic team.
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Pam didn’t get to see her wish come true. She passed away on June 1.
Wilson was heartbroken but didn’t tell anyone because the Olympic trials were coming up and he had sworn an oath to his nan that he’d make the team.
“We kind of had a timeline for when she would pass, but that wasn’t until December,” he said. “So she kept on saying stuff like ‘I’m going to survive until you swim in the Olympics or you make an Olympic team.
“It was a week out (from trials) they said that she‘s taken a really bad turn and she only probably had a few days to live. She held on for a little bit and then she passed.
“I couldn‘t go see her, which was really, really tough for me. With all this COVID stuff, and I was training for an Olympic team, I couldn’t go say goodbye. I did call beforehand and said, ‘I love you’.”
A silver medallist at the 2019 world championships, Wilson didn’t perform as well as he expected during this week’s trials.
He finished second in the 200m final and was well inside the official Olympic qualifying time, but there was a cruel twist. Swimming Australia has an extra clause in its selection policy — that swimmers have to post a time to at least get into the final — and Wilson was once again a heartbeat away.
That meant he wasn’t going to Tokyo. That’s when it hit him, and he began sobbing uncontrollably.
“I felt like I let her down,” he said. “It had had a bigger impact than I thought.”
Zac Stubblety-Cook, swimming in the next lane, did make the qualifying cut but could see how distressed Wilson was so he wrapped his arms around him, as did Daniel Cave, who finished third.
It was distressing to watch and turned the spotlight on Swimming Australia’s brutal selection rules, though only a few handful of people knew the real reason Wilson was grief-stricken.
Ron McKeon, the NSW state head coach and father of superstar Emma McKeon, was one of the few. He also knew there was some wriggle room in the rules for selectors to pick Wilson because of extenuating circumstances.
On the night before the squad was announced, McKeon contacted Wilson, saying he had some news for him.
“The first thing he said was ‘I’m sorry about the passing of your nan’,” Wilson said.
“Then he told me I was probably gonna go to the Olympics. I thought he was geeing me up, it was a shock.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to be there so to get the confirmation, I’m ecstatic. Now I want to repay everyone for the faith they have shown in me. ”
THE SELECTION POLICY THAT MAKES LEGEND ‘WANT TO SPEW’
Swimming Australia is sticking by its cold-blooded selection policy for the Tokyo Olympics after revealing that some Aussies who meet the official qualifying standard could be left off the team for budget reasons.
Already under fire following complaints about the way swimmers are treated amid growing concerns for their mental wellbeing, the brutal policy raises fresh questions about whether administrators are putting themselves ahead of vulnerable, young athletes.
Introduced after the Australian swim team won just 10 medals at the 2012 London Olympics, the new rules state that to be picked for the Olympics, Aussie swimmers not only have to finish first or second at the national trials and go under the official Olympic qualifying standard — but they also need to post a time that would have got them into the final at the 2019 world championship.
It’s an added hurdle that not even the United States, which has the best swimmers in the world, places on its athletes but Australian team officials insist the practice is fine because the only thing that matters is winning medals.
“We’re employed and held accountable for the performances at the international meets through medals,” Australian head coach Rohan Taylor told News Corp.
“Our funding is all driven by those things so we have to put in place a system to try to maximise that opportunity.
“When you look at it from a broader sense, of course you want to give everybody a chance but that’s how we’ve gone down that path. If you spread it too wide, you might lose a bit.”
The critics say there’s no justification whatsoever for putting medals and money ahead of people because all it really does is rob young Aussie swimmers of the chance to represent their country on the world stage.
The raw emotional cruelty of the policy hit home when Matt Wilson broke down in tears after finishing second in the 200m breaststroke final at the trials.
It was the second time in his career that Wilson has gone under the official Olympic qualifying time at the trials only to fall victim to Australia’s added requirement.
The Blue Mountains-based swimmer was inconsolable after he climbed out of the pool and collapsed into the arms of his grief-stricken parents, who have seen all the sacrifices he has made over the years.
A hugely talented swimmer, Wilson broke the world record in 2019 and won a silver medal at the world championships but his training was badly disrupted by the coronavirus lockdown.
Taylor said Swimming Australia considered ditching the policy because of the pandemic but decided to keep it, explaining: “It’s heartbreaking to see that but it’s been very clear for a long time that that’s how we go with the benchmark meets.”
Worse still, there’s no proof the system even works.
It was trialled for the first time at the 2016 Rio Olympics — where Australia again won only 10 medals in swimming — about half the number the Dolphins were winning regularly before the system was introduced.
Legendary coach Laurie Lawrence is among the many critics who want it scrapped immediately. He told News Corp last year the policy “made him want to spew” because it doesn’t take into account how swimmers can lift when they get to the Olympics.
“It’s cutthroat enough to finish first or second at the trials but plenty of swimmers are pure racers that will improve when they get to the Olympics,” he said.
A genius at helping swimmers peak when it matters, Lawrence is living proof of what can happen after he masterminded two of the greatest upsets in Olympic history with Jon Sieben and Duncan Armstrong.
Sieben was ranked 25th in the world when he won the gold medal in the 200m butterfly at the 1984 Los Angeles while Armstrong was ranked 46th when he won the 200 metre freestyle gold at Seoul in 1988.
Under Australia’s current policy, neither would have got picked for the team, let alone won gold.
Swimming Australia’s current president Kieren Perkins is another example of how Aussie swimmers can rise to the occasion.
Perkins struggled to make the team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and only snuck into the 1500m freestyle final as the slowest qualifier, yet he produced one of the greatest moments in Australian sports history when he won the gold.
Wilson isn’t the only swimmer in danger of missing the team for Tokyo because of Australia’s contentious policy, but is among a very small handful.
The selectors will name the team for Tokyo on Thursday and have a variety of discretionary powers to pick any swimmer they will help the team.
That’s why Mack Horton is expected to be chosen, as a reserve relay swimmer, after he failed to make the top two in any of the three events he contested.
The policy is unpopular among swimmers themselves with some senior team members now openly advocating for a rethink, arguing that representing your country at the Olympics is not just about winning medals.
“I know we‘ve got pretty strict qualification rules and they’ve been in place for a number of years,” Mitch Larkin said.
“But I do sort of question the experience that they can gain as an athlete is so invaluable. Why not take them? I‘m lucky I’m not a selector.”
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Originally published as Tokyo Olympics: Matt Wilson reveals the heartbreak behind his selection story
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