 Hackett to hang up togs as body ails
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-29 08:03 SYDNEY: Champion Australian swimmer Grant Hackett announced his retirement from the sport at Swimming Australia's swimmer of the year awards here on Monday. Hackett, 28, a respected role model in the sport, became emotional when the entire crowd at the function gave him a sustained standing ovation. He told his teammates in the audience to enjoy their time in the sport as it came to an end so quickly. "I have been doing this for a long time and just make the most of every opportunity because you will get to this point and it is now all just a memory for me," he said. Hackett had already declared this year's Beijing Games would be his last Olympics after his heartbreaking loss of a third consecutive 1500m freestyle crown by less than a second.
Hackett, who has held the world record for seven years, went down to Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli by just 0.69 seconds. The Australian great had dominated the 1500m for more than a decade, winning four world titles and two Olympic titles in Sydney and Athens. He was Australia's most decorated swimmer at the world championships with 18 medals and won a total of seven Olympic medals over three Games - three gold, three silver and one bronze. His world record of 14 minutes 34.56 seconds has been described as phenomenal by his rivals and he has consistently raised the bar in distance swimming since inheriting the role of Olympic and world champion from Kieren Perkins. Hackett has recently taken up a job reading the weekend sports news on the Nine Network in Melbourne and is looking to a career in banking. The swimmer said competing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he pipped Perkins in the 1500m, and being part of the successful Australian team, had been his career highlights. He said the grind of distance swimming had physically caught up with him and left him with persistent shoulder problems, particularly since undergoing major surgery at the end of 2005. "It is a nice thought (about continuing) but the body can only take so much and he's flogged himself for 22 years now up and down that pool," Hackett's father, Nev, told reporters at Monday's function. "I don't know how anyone can do that." Hackett first rose to sporting fame in Australia at the 1998 world championships in Perth as a 17-year-old where he was touched out in the 400m final by a 15-year-old Ian Thorpe. They developed an enduring rivalry and strong friendship that led Australia's swim team to the nation's best run of success since the golden days of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Hackett's other Olympic gold medal came in the 4x200m in 2000, but he ends his career just below Thorpe and Dawn Fraser in the roll call of Australia's greatest swimmers. AFP (China Daily 10/29/2008 page22) |
