Susie O’Brien: Any Grant Hackett arrest comeback chance dead in water
FOR too long Grant Hackett has been trading on the residual goodwill from his swimming success. He must now step away from the limelight he craves to get help, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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- Troubled swimming champ Grant Hackett arrested
- Hackett ‘flew into uncontrollable rage’
- Passenger accuses Grant Hackett of groping his chest
- Australian sports’ list of fallen stars
ANY chance of a comeback for Grant Hackett is now dead in the water — and it’s a good thing too.
Just last year there were signs he may have been capable of regaining his place in the spotlight, with rumours circling that he was petitioning to join the Channel Seven Rio Olympics commentating team.
He didn’t get the gig. There were also suggestions he was being considered as a mentor for the Australian swimming team.
But his arrest today must surely be the final straw. No network or sporting body would want to touch Hackett now.
The bizarre sight of Hackett dazed and making “she’s right” hand gestures in the back of a police car today was the final fall from grace for a man who once earned $2 million a year in endorsements.
Hackett was taken away by police from his parents’ place after witness accounts that he was “going off” and stabbing a knife in a chopping block.
I can’t imagine how terrified his parents would have been to involve the police.
For too long Hackett has been trading on the residual goodwill that came with his success in the pool. Tall, handsome, urbane and an Olympic gold medallist, Hackett seemed to have it all.
But in recent years it’s been apparent the former champion has been struggling to control his behaviour and addictions.
In April last year he forcefully groped a passenger on a plane, even tweaking a man’s nipples.
And let’s not forget there was the time he trashed the home he shared with the mother of his children.
Photos from that night showed doors and walls punched, a grand piano up-ended and furniture smashed and broken. How scared his family must have been.
There was also the time he was found wandering around Crown Casino wearing a singlet as a pair of shorts while looking for his lost son.
It’s time for Hackett to step away from the limelight he craves so he can get the help he so desperately needs.
This time it appears no one was hurt, so let’s hope he takes this opportunity as a final wakeup call and seeks treatment.
Hackett is the latest in a long list of sporting greats who have struggled with their lives out of the pool — including Scott Miller and Geoff Huegill.
Clearly, more needs to be done to support our young stars as they grow up.
Perhaps there a certain inevitable downfall that comes that comes with achieving international greatness in your teens.
After all, when you’re an Olympic gold medallist, world champion and Young Australian of the Year in your teens, it’s got to be all downhill from there, doesn’t it?
The recent experiences of these three men show that while there is much to be gained from sporting success, it can come at a great cost: loss of privacy, lack of life balance and the crushing weight of the expectations of others.
Perhaps swimming is part of the problem. By the time these young men were famous they had spent many years doing little more than swim up and down a black line in a pool.
In doing so, they missed out on many crucial life skills and normalising experiences.
Such stars are also under incredible pressure from managers, moneymen and press agents who want to get maximum mileage out of them for the short years they’re swimming.
Too often what happens off the pool or track is tolerated as long as the star athletes keep winning, and keep making money for those around them.
Let’s hope Hackett gets the help he needs to get over any addictions and repair his fragile mental state.
He must show he has his personal life completely under control before he can expect to re-enter public life. Let’s hope for his sakes, and for those around him, that he can turn things around.
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @susieob
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