Shane Gould criticises Australian national swimmer for poor performance at the London Olympics
Three-time gold medallist, Shane Gould of Australia has criticised national swimmers on their poor performance at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Gould was not alone in criticising the Australian swimmers as Susie O’Neill objected that the current swimmers are not working hard and thus not performing up to the mark.
The statements from both stars were given after Australia dropped to the sixth best swimming nation at these Olympics. They said that the performance of Australian team has been deteriorating over the past ten years and no further improvements have been made.
Gould won three gold medals in the events of 200m Individual Medley (IM), 200m freestyle, and 400m freestyle at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Furthermore, O’Neill is the eight-time Olympic medallist, which includes two gold medals in the 200m butterfly and 200m freestyle respectively.
Australia finished sixth in swimming at these Olympic Games with just one gold medal, six silver medals and three bronze medals while USA topped the chart with 16 gold medals, eight silver medals and 6 bronze medals.
China stood second on the overall swimming rankings with five gold medals, two silver medals and three bronze medals whereas France was third after scoring four gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal.
Subsequently, Netherlands and South Africa remained fourth and fifth best with two gold medals each.
While talking about the discipline of Australian team, O’Neill said, “It's really difficult in my situation to feel like I'm bagging the current athletes, and it's easy to do that as a past athlete.”
“Talent gets you this far in an Olympics. Work ethic gets you across the line. That's what I tell my kids, I tell everyone. It's one part talent, it's four parts work ethic. Especially in these distance events. We didn't get any Australians in the 800m freestyle [final]. We didn't get any Australians in the 200m butterfly [final]. Talent gets you this far. In those events, especially, it's all hard work,” she added.
In addition, both swimmers insisted that strong measures should be taken to be one of the best swimming nations as Australia was a decade ago.
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