Grant Hackett: ‘I’m only human and it does hurt’
As the fallout from the latest Grant Hackett incident continues, Mike Colman recalls a powerful conversation he had with the troubled swimmer.
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The news flash came through at lunchtime: “Grant Hackett arrested’’.
As the late, great sports commentator Rex Mossop might have said, it was like deja vu all over again.
You know how it is when you have a dream, or maybe just a stream of thought, and then forget all about it until something jogs your memory?
That’s how it was when I saw those words on my iPhone.
It reminded me that just a day or two earlier I had been thinking about Grant Hackett; about the last time I had read those same words, after the Olympic swim trials in Adelaide last April.
Grant Hackett was the biggest feel-good story of the week then: the three-time Olympian, two-time gold-medallist, trying to make a comeback after a much-publicised fall from grace. He looked great; fit, strong, clear-headed and he just fell short, before walking away with a smile and a wave to the cameras.
Everybody loved him then, but 48 hours later he was back leading the news cycle after an even more much-publicised fall from grace.
Oh boy, didn’t the love turn to hate fast.
EXCLUSIVE: Hackett flew into uncontrollable rage
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Grant Hackett is a lovely young man. I have been writing stories about him since he was 17 years old. I’ve seen how hard he has worked to bring honour to his country and his family, and I have seen how he has carried the hopes of millions of Australians on his back for countless kilometres up and down the lanes of swimming pools around the world.
I have sat in the press seats at every one of his Olympic finals; the atmosphere as thick as a London fog, full of pressure and expectation. I have witnessed the adulation and hero-worship that followed his triumphs and, when the cheering stopped, I have been stunned by the bitterness and spite.
Which is what I was thinking about during that half-dream earlier in the week. For some reason I was visualising how maybe, if I had been on Grant’s flight from Adelaide that morning, instead of the one an hour earlier, I might have seen him in a tired and emotional state as he waited at the airport. I might have gone over and asked if he was OK, and maybe even, somehow, steered him away from confrontation and into a quiet corner.
Because that is what he required. Someone who realised that he was in trouble and needed a helping hand.
Of course, that is not what happened. Between 1999 and 2008 all the people lining up to be Grant Hackett’s mate couldn’t have squeezed into the Sydney Olympic Stadium. In April 2016 he was friendless.
More than that, he was a hunted animal.
Like all Australians I have seen the Tall Poppy Syndrome in action, but I don’t think I have ever seen it in all its poisonous bile as much as in the days after our one-time Olympic hero was escorted off that domestic flight.
As I read the online comments from Hackett-haters basking in his downfall, I remember thinking, “geez, what did this guy ever do to you?”
Still, I suppose when we place someone on a pedestal as high as the one we built for Grant and his teammate Ian Thorpe, there is only one way to go.
Those people we entrust with our emotional support should be aware of that, right?
Well, yes, but as Hackett said to me last year as he prepared to go to commentate on the Olympic swimming for African audiences from an empty studio in Doha, “the truth is I’m only human and it does hurt’’.
Which is why, hopefully, as we wait for the fallout from the latest “Grant Hackett arrested’’ headline, the morally outraged might go a little easier on him this time.
Because that is what he requires. People to realise that he is in trouble and needs a helping hand.
Originally published as Grant Hackett: ‘I’m only human and it does hurt’
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