Aussies restore pride to the pool with team first spirit
IT was the moment never captured by television cameras that embodies how the once-toxic Australian swim team culture has changed so dramatically.
THE once-toxic swim culture has been so completely torpedoed that Australia’s gold-plated conquerors in the pool are again the embodiment of “team-first” in wake of the sellout of standards by our cheating cricketers.
Never captured on TV was a poignant moment at the end of the men’s sapping 1500m freestyle on Tuesday night.
As Constantinos Hadjittooulis, of Cyprus, stroked slowly home more than two laps behind victor Jack McLoughlin and bronze medallist Mack Horton, the Aussie duo broke from their own celebrations, to acknowledge the spent Cypriot’s own achievement.
Mack Horton ditches 1500m event for Tokyo following sizzling effort in 200m in Commonwealth Games
It’s not by random acts from just the good guys that the swimmers have rebuilt a team culture which hit its lowest ebb six years ago at the London Olympics.
Borderline bullying, big heads, team cliques, swimming for themselves and fizzers are all ancient history.
“The culture of this team is amazing, the camaraderie, we’re all one,” five-gold hero Mitch Larkin said.
“There was a big message pre-meet of supporting our own team and once you’ve set that culture, everyone’s excited to be in.
“I remember London and sitting apart at lunch or dinner as backstroke boys, the freestyle guys and the girl groups.
“We don’t say much to the media about it but we figure if the top guys set the tone, the rest of the team will follow.”
The transformation was well afoot in swimming even before chef de mission Steve Moneghetti gathered the entire Australian team in a room at The Star hotel for a 20-minute briefing before the flag-bearer announcement last week.
No officials. No family. No hangers-on. Just athletes.
Games icons Anna Meares, Rick Mitchell and Lisa Curry delivered from the heart what the green-and-gold and a rare home Games should mean.
Top Aussie swim coach Dean Boxall revealed that the premeditated accent on putting “Australia first” in their mindset was all-important from chief Jacco Verhaeren in generating the 73-medal wave in the water on the Gold Coast.
“A guy like Clyde Lewis wasn’t even expecting to swim the 400m individual medley ... pushing to the limits of exhaustion to win wasn’t for himself but what Australia meant to him. I know that for fact,” Boxall said.
“The swimmers were unbelievable in supporting each other from the stands and you saw Aussies committed to performing for Australia not themselves.”
Australian team attache Andrew Baildon, a two-time Olympic freestyler, said he was aghast when watching TV in 2012 when cameras snapped Aussie swimmers disinterested on their phones or not in the stands at all when teammates were swimming.
“It was a sad reflection and the strong step of these Games from the swimmers, and the whole Aussie team at large, has been taking on board that the coat of arms comes first,” Baildon said.
Boxall’s three-gold star Ariarne Titmus summed it up.
“It’s not just about winning medals but everyone supporting each other and I’m glad I’ve been brought in when the team culture is so strong,” Titmus said.
When marked against last year’s muted 10-medal haul at the world titles in Budapest, the Dolphins would have won 12 medals and twice the gold (two) swimming the times they did in the Games pool. It’s a strong pass mark in and out of the pool.
Originally published as Aussies restore pride to the pool with team first spirit
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