O’Neill, Thorpe awarded gold for grace in loss

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Sydney: Australia have awarded a double gold for grace under pressure to swimming stars Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill. In defeat they proved there is life after swimming. They had the weight of a sports-mad nation on their shoulders.

Victory seemed a certainty. They were ranked world number one. They lost. "Madame Butterfly" O'Neill had never lost a 200-metre butterfly race for six years. Then American Misty Hyman toppled her from her Olympic pedestal.O'Neill rose to the occasion however much the hurt.

"I can't be too disappointed, she said. "I've had a great career. I'm at a point in my life where I want to do other things and spend more time with my husband. I'm not sad at all that I won't have to train any more."

Australians were contemplating sainthood for the mighty Thorpedo. Then Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband proved he was human after all in a pulsating 200 metres freestyle final.

Gracious in defeat, Thorpe swum over to hug and congratulate the Dutchman for his courage. "Pieter really swam a great race. It was a real privilege to swim that race," he said.

'The Australian' newspaper noted, "O'Neill and Thorpe are champions who have a life. Champions who gave their lives to swimming - or much of their lives - but know life is about more than swimming."

Shane Gould, another Australian swimming superstar who knows all about the pressures of national expectation, took her hat off to Thorpe.

"It would have been nice for him to win but he's a young colt who has met the stallion - and the stallion won. The loss is his initiation into manhood," she said.

O'Neill's shock defeat was just as traumatic. "Farewell Susie" ran one grieving banner headline. Everyone united in concluding this was a "girl next door" star who put a silver lining on her medal and showed grace in defeat.

But it still hurt to see how the mighty are fallen. 'The Age' newspaper concluded, "Madame Butterfly has heard someone else sing her aria in the final scene."



(c) Reuters Limited.