Interview: Grant Hackett

original link

Grant Hackett has had a big week in the world swimming championship trials in Sydney … winning four events, including the 1500 metre freestyle in his fastest time in Australia. But an even bigger moment came last night when he was named as captain of the Australian swimming team — the first time swimming has had one person representing the sport in a captaincy role. His appointment was endorsed by former Wallabies captain, John Eales, former Test cricket captain, Steve Waugh, and Australian netball skipper, Liz Ellis. Grant Hackett talked about the honour and the future of Australian swimming with Jana Wendt …

JANA WENDT: Grant Hackett has finally come out of the shadow of Ian Thorpe. With Thorpe out of the national swimming championships, Hackett won the 200, 400, 800, and 1500 metre freestyle events, posting his fastest time in the 1500 in Australia last night.

To cap off a week of triumph, Hackett was named captain of the Australian team ahead of the world championships in Montreal in July.

It’s the first time swimming has had a single person representing the sport as captain. Grant Hackett joins us now from Homebush, where he’s led the team by example all week.

Grant, thanks for joining us. Congratulations on an amazing week. Is there an added weight on your shoulders this morning now that you have the responsibility of captaincy?

GRANT HACKETT: I’m not really feeling it, to be honest. I’m just looking forward to taking on the role, and the challenge, of course, of doing that.

Certainly I feel like the team has given so much to me, and I’d love to put back in. I guess for the past couple of years now, I’ve sort of unofficially taken on that role, but now to officially be named the team captain, and be able to look after the team, and you know, I guess my main focus, of course, is on my competition. What I have to do, and leading by example. But at the end of the day, I’m certainly looking forward to working with the athletes, and the things externally from the sport that a team captain has to do.

JANA WENDT: Well, what sorts of things do you think a team captain does have to do?

GRANT HACKETT: Well, obviously internally with the team he has to lead his fellow peers, you know? We have a very diverse team. We have a girl as young as, you know, 15 or 16, and a male as old as 30, so you have to be very approachable. You have to work with the group. And certainly you want the support of all your athletes.

In terms of externally you have to be, I guess, a media face like your George Gregan, your Johnny Elsworth of the Wallabies or your Ricky Ponting for, of course, the cricket team. So therefore you’ve just got to, I guess, bring the sport into more of a professional light.

JANA WENDT: You mention that your main concern is still of course your own performance and your own swimming. But do you think your new role as captain might have an impact on your own swimming in the pool?

GRANT HACKETT: I think only a positive impact. At the end of the day, this is something I’m looking forward to doing, and a challenge, and I’ve certainly spoken with the head coach Alan Thompson, and they want to make sure it doesn’t take away from my performances, only really complement them.

You’ve got to make sure that you do lead by example, and you do everything right, and you get up and perform well. And for someone like me who competes six out of the eight day rogramme at a swimming meet, it certainly is a very long week, but a lot of the captaincy role will surround the competition and pre and post and all those sorts of bits and pieces.

And I’m quite used to doing a lot of media throughout the week of competing, so I don’t feel it’s going to have, you know, too much extra impact. And like I said, I’m just looking forward to taking on the challenge of the role, and leading my group. That’s something that I’m finding very exciting.

JANA WENDT: Well, the whole week, but especially the 1500 last night for you looked pretty easy. How much more do you think you have in you in that event?

GRANT HACKETT: You know, a lot more. I came here with only 11 weeks’ preparation under my belt. I had two and a half months off after the Olympic Games in Athens because I felt like my body — I really needed it. And you know, I’ve certainly been feeling good this week.

And I guess I’m just looking forward now to getting back in the water, preparing for the next 14 weeks with the world championships obviously coming up in July in Montreal, and that’s where my main focus is now. The time was great last night, but my best time’s 14 minutes 34, and I hope to be able to bring that down a little bit more at world championships.
But certainly everything looks good at this stage.

JANA WENDT: Okay. I’ll ask you to put on your captain’s hat now. There’s been some controversy recently about remarks made by Ian Thorpe suggesting that the sport had been over-exposed.

Now, if Ian Thorpe made those comments today, what would the captain do about it?

GRANT HACKETT: I guess I’d jump on the front of the camera like I am right now, and that’s something I actually had to do throughout the week when Ian, of course, made those comments. And I mean, whether the sport is over-exposed or not, you know, when you’ve got big sponsors and big companies like Telstra and Speedo supporting us, we certainly need that exposure, and it’s something that’s very important to the athletes.

I guess getting sponsorship and being able to be financially secure throughout the sport. Not everyone’s like, you know, Ian or myself. Or many of the other athletes like Jodie Henry or Giaan Rooney, and certainly need that exposure, and you know, perhaps, strategically he thinks things could be improved, and he’s certainly entitled to that opinion, and I guess he should sit down with the hierarchy of the sport and suggest what needs to be done.

But at this stage, you know, things seem to be going well. We have a very popular support, and a lot of popular athletes, so there’s not too much that’s broken.

JANA WENDT: And if he’d made those remarks today would you as captain have sat down and had a work to him about what he’s said?

GRANT HACKETT: Oh, certainly I would have sat down and nutted out, you know, where he was coming from, and you know, seen if things were taken out of context, and certainly looked at all the issues, and looked at all the points of the issues, and that’s very important, and obviously, you know, Ian’s a very high-profile athlete, not just here but all around the world.

And whenever he says something it can be taken out of context, it can be blown up out of proportion, and we have to be conscious of that, and I guess I’d just sit down and see where he was coming from and then try and make an unbiased opinion, and you know, I guess look at it all from a positive angle.

JANA WENDT: As you say, he does have a formidable international reputation. Does that present its own issues for the captain of a team?

GRANT HACKETT: No, not really. I mean, we’ve got a very diverse range of athletes, like I was talking about, and you have to be able to cater for all those – all those athletes. All those personalities. And all their, I guess, statuses.

You know, where they lie, and their profiles lie. And, you know, Ian is an athlete who is global, and you know, very well recognised. But at the end of the day he is part of the swimming team, and you know, we work together as a team, and we’re all working to complement each other’s performances, and you know, certainly being a team captain or being a part of that team in general, and having experience is something that we’ve just got to work together.

I mean, not only is it 40 to 41 athletes, but there’s 76 of us altogether. We have managers, we have sports staff, we have physiotherapists, coaches, and all those sorts of people. So I guess it’s a very important role as team captain to make sure that, you know, everyone’s happy.

JANA WENDT: Grant Hackett we wish you very good luck in your new role, and of course in your swimming future. Thanks very much for joining us this morning.

GRANT HACKETT: Ta, thanks for having me. Thanks Jana.

JANA WENDT: Grant Hackett, speaking to us from Homebush there.