Dean Woods: Olympic legend brings audience to tears with self-read eulogy

Watch an Olympic Gold medallist deliver his eulogy to his wife and three kids in an emotional video he prerecorded weeks before his death.

An audience was brought to tears during an emotional funeral service at Wangaratta as an Olympic Gold medallist delivered his own eulogy to his wife and three kids on Tuesday.

The cycling legend was farewelled after he died in the Gold Coast on March 3 from cancer.
Dean Woods, dressed in the same suit he was buried in, appeared on a projector screen behind his casket at the Wangaratta Performing Arts and Convention Centre in a video he prerecorded weeks before his death.

It was the first time his wife and three now adult children watched it.

“I’m well prepared, even though I’m in the box in front of you,” Mr Woods said.

“This will be the suit I’ll be put in the box in. (I’ve) even got the torch ... in there just in case it gets dark.”

The funeral was the first time anyone had heard Woods' eulogy.

The funeral started with the famous footage of Mr Woods and his teammates winning gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and ended with a touching tribute from his wife of 28 years, Meagan.

Mrs Woods told The Herald Sun on Wednesday she was learning to embrace celebrating her husband’s life rather than mourning him.

“We’re devastated,” Mrs Woods said.

“We’re going home tomorrow and I think that’s when the reality will hit. Especially for myself and the girls, because we have had such a wonderful distraction.

“I think once we get back home and into the swing of things, the silence will be deafening.”

Dean, Meagan and their three children, Paris, Kennedy and Devon. Photo: Supplied.

Mrs Woods said her husband was a humble man who could always captivate an audience.

She said she couldn’t believe it when Mr Woods told her he was going to read his own eulogy.

“Probably a month ago I came home from work and I’d left my phone at home.

“It was the middle of the day and he’s in a suit. And we’re in the Gold Coast, so it’s boiling hot, so I thought something wasn’t right here.

“I asked him ‘Where are you going? and he said ‘Nowhere.’

“So I said ‘Why are you wearing a shirt?’ and he said ‘Ta-da. This is my going away outfit.’”

Mr Woods had written his eulogy and recorded it on her phone.

Mrs Woods said she “couldn’t wait to see him again” at the funeral.

“It was so good to see him again. It was like we were just sitting at home having a chat.”

Mrs Woods said while Mr Woods was in palliative care for his final week, they spent most of their time reading hundreds of letters and messages from both close and distant friends sharing their fondest memories with him.

“We have a house full of laughter. We’ve got a life time of grieving to come so we just wanted to make sure that even in the palliative care unit we spent it laughing.”

Mr Woods’ hour-long eulogy spoke of his cycling career, family and his life advice.

“Hello ladies and gentlemen,” Mr Woods said.

“It’s a bit of a sad occasion. I’ve had a pretty extraordinary life. It’s pretty hard for anyone to document that in a simple form, so the best person to do it is me.”

Woods won gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games with the Australian men's 4000m pursuit cycling team.

Woods said being realistically positive and being emotionally stable had helped him get through the toughest times of his life.

“They’re two things that go hand-in-hand, and they’re two prerequisites for high performance sport,” Mr Woods said.

“You need to be able to use those tools to control the environment around you.

“You can control the outcome, but everything in the meantime you’re able to have some sort of influence (over).

“You have to be realistic with the outcome.”

Despite such success in the 1984 Olympics, Mr Woods recalled his first experience on a push bike to be “disastrous”, where he ended up with his hand caught in a bike chain at just three years old.

Woods’ eulogy (in part):

Hello ladies and gentlemen … it’s a bit of a sad occasion.

I’ve had a pretty extraordinary life, it’s pretty hard for anyone to document that in a simple form, so the best person to do it is me.

First of all, today is a sad day, but for me this is just my process with the whole cancer deal.

It’s not a tragedy, and I saw that for the reason I’ve spent so much time riding my bike throughout the world, had a lot of near misses, but never had any serious accidents.

Now for me, to say to Meagan and the kids that I’m going out for a two hour ride, and not coming back – now that’s a tragedy, because everything was fine.

I’ve been fortunate enough, and I do say fortunate enough, to be able to have the time to put a few things in place, to get a few things sorted.

Even though, two years ago when I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer … So the main issue was in the lungs.

Which, when you consider someone who’s spent 40 years with their lungs in their profession keeping you fit and healthy, it’s just one of those things.

But I’ve never once and never will say: “Why me? Why me?”

It’s not who I am, and it’s not the way to deal with it.

It’s like if I won 50 billion in the Lotto, would I be saying: “Why me? Why me?”

Absolutely not. So you take the goods with the bads. And that’s what I’ve been able to do.

I owe a massive amount of what I know to high performance sport.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to put myself through many arduous situations.

And you still have that commitment to keep going.

There’s never that moment you want to stop, even though it does creep in, but you know there’s an end goal.

And the end goal is to keep going and push through.

So even from a young age I’ve been very fortunate to have those experiences which have served me really well in my two terms of cancer.