The land down under has produced athletes of thunder (Part 1)
Australia! The land down under or the lucky country are a couple of the names the country have been given. The country no doubt has been lucky and highly competent in the athletes and sportspeople it has produced.
Australia is not just famous for the Sydney Opera House or its amazing outback. It is also greatly renowned for the development of some of the greatest athletes and sportspersons to have entered any sporting arena.
Some of the world’s most entertaining and exceptionally talented sportsmen are of Aussie descent. The country has a brilliant system for developing clubs and schools for both boys and girls to start training and learning a sport at a very young age. Not
many countries are as equipped and organized as they are in terms of the opportunities they have made available for their youth.
It is one of the primary reasons they have been able to create sporting giants. It’s the elevated level and time they put into grooming players that have given them that evident sporting and competitive edge over other teams and countries. They have state
of the art academies for almost every game where youngsters can flourish and make necessary changes and improvements to their respective games.
A few examples of the athletic marvels created by them are Ian Thorpe, the international super swimmer. Andrew Johns, arguably the greatest rugby player to have ever played the game. Adam Gilchrist, possibly the most explosive wicket keeper batsmen to have
ever played cricket and last but not least, the man who single handily created cricketing benchmarks that till date no human being has even come close to, let alone beat, was Sir Donald Bradman.
Thorpe who earned the name "The Thorpedo" because of his lightning like speed in the water is right up there with the most mesmerizing swimmers to have ever existed. At the tender age of fourteen Thorpe made his entrance
into the world of professional swimming.
It was not long before he made history by earning the World Champion swimming title at just sixteen years of age. He celebrated his sixteenth birthday by giving himself the world title in the 400m division. By the age of seventeen, this startling boy had
broken and made twenty-two world records. His illustrious career had taken off.
As he matured, he began making world records at almost every opportunity that came his way. He remains the only swimmer to have won medals in every combination of the sport. Thorpedo set a new standard for both existing specialist swimmers and also for those
who were planning on entering the global stage in the future.
He ruled the Olympics for almost three years straight winning gold medals almost at will. It was in 2006 when he thought it was time to retire and left his career for personal medical reasons. What most people did not know about this shark in the water was
that, he accomplished all these feats while being allergic to chlorine.
Moving on to Andrew Johns, who changed the sport of rugby, for good. His spirit and guts were on a whole new scale. Andrew made his first pro-rugby appearance in 1993 where out of pure luck his name was included in the starting line-up.
The reason for this was that the regular half back for Newcastle Knights had suffered a sudden injury, creating a chance for Johns to enter the playing fifteen. In his first match Andrew scored 24 points making himself the player of the match and being recognized
by the coaches and audience as a forced to be reckoned with.
In 1997 Andrew and his team the Knights had made the final of the Premiership Cup. However, during the semi final match, Andrew had fractured his ribs and had damaged his chest badly as well. Only an incredibly motivated and a slightly crazy person would
have still chosen to play in the final.
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