Wild image behind Izaac Stubblety-Cook’s crazy gold medal comeback

Zac Stubblety-Cook brought home yet another gold medal for Australia, but this crazy image shows just how much ground he made up to win.

Stubblety-Cook had a fair bit of work to do to claw back the lead.

Zac Stubblety-Cook has continued the green and gold rush in the pool at the Tokyo Olympics, winning the men’s 200m breaststroke.

The 22-year-old was one of the favourites going into the event, but for those who didn’t know much about Stubblety-Cook going into the race, you’d have thought from the vision of the first lap he was just in there to make up the numbers.

Stubblety-Cook was well back in the pack at the halfway mark of the race but surged home in the final 50m to make up huge ground and touch the wall in a new Olympic record of 2.06:38, ahead of Dutch star Arno Kamminga in second and Finland’s Matti Mattson in third.

A photo shows just how much ground Stubblety-Cook had to make up in the pool to not only win the race, but just to stay within touching distance of the leaders.

The Aussie was a full body length behind as swimmers turned for the final lap.

Stubblety-Cook was far behind the pace initially.

But he stormed home to touch the wall first and send legendary Australian swimmer Leisel Jones into raptures.

“Zac Stubblety-Cook, I am so proud of you, the Olympic record in the 200 breaststroke,” Jones said.

“We’ve always been so consistent in this event, and the gold medal has just been elusive.”

Stubblety-Cook’s win gave Australia its seventh gold medal for the Games, equalling the haul we mentioned five years ago in Rio.

To win the gold was the moment the Queenslander had dreamt of his entire life, but he could barely muster any words to sum up his achievement.

“Unbelievable. Lost for words, really,” Stubblety-Cook said.

“Without (my family’s) support I couldn’t be here.

“But it’s been a tough five years and I’m lost for words to be honest.”

Zac Stubblety-Cook won the gold medal in the men's 200m breastroke.

Despite being unable to verbalise his thoughts on what he’d just accomplished, he did give an insight into his race plan.

As he lurked in the backfield of the race, it was actually the youngster’s strategy all along.

Even though he may have given the millions of Aussies tuning in a major scare about how he might be left behind by the race leaders, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Made it entertaining, right?” Stubblety-Cook said.

“But you know, that’s the way I train and that’s the way I race all the time.

“So at these Games I won’t try to change my strengths. It’s too late for that.

“I’m just definitely happy that the process paid off.”

Zac Stubblety-Cook was 1.63 seconds behind the leader at the 100m and 1.19s behind at the 150m, but stunned the field to win by 0.63s in the men's 200m breaststroke.#Swimming#Tokyo2020pic.twitter.com/BH2pgSLA9O

— InsightLane (@insightlane) July 29, 2021

Australians like to think they become a nation of swimming experts each time the Olympics rolls around, but we reckon plenty of people watching the final at home would have shared the sentiments of former netball star Nat Medhurst.

“Zac Stubblety-Cook … never heard of the bloke but WOWEE! Will definitely remember the name,” she tweeted.

“Epic swim. Olympic champion!”

Journalist Casey Briggs pointed out the difference in profile between Stubblety-Cook and other members of our swim team, tweeting: “Zac Stubblety-Cook’s wikipedia page is currently two sentences long.”