Grant accepts body of evidence

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Michael Cowley hears how Grant Hackett aims to stay healthy and prolong his career - by learning his limits.

After not doing so nearly cost him two Olympic gold medals, Grant Hackett has finally decided it’s time to start listening when his body is speaking to him.

Illness has been a companion of Hackett’s at most major swimming events in recent years. As a result, the quickest man on the planet in the most arduous event in his sport has at times given the impression he’s a sickly sort of sportsman. As of now, that image is redundant.

At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Hackett was struck down by glandular fever and had to struggle through it to win gold in the 1500 metres freestyle. In Athens this year, a chronic chest infection left fluid on his lung and dramatically decreased its capacity, bringing him closer to defeat than he had been in eight years of dominating the staying event.

After fearing that he had suffered permanent damage from pushing his body through illness to swim in Greece, Hackett has had a wake-up call.

“I had mild pneumonia at the beginning of the year and I spent some time in hospital and it came from there,” he explained.

“I had a chronic chest infection and due to this, there had been mucus sitting on my lungs for so long, it actually blocked part of my left lung. A partial percentage of it just deflated.
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“A CAT scan I got two weeks after the Games showed I had this much [he indicates a few centimetres] fluid on there. It was extensive, and the biggest concern for me was: ‘Will it ever be the same again?’

“Because I’d trained with this for eight months, because I hadn’t had the time to take three or four weeks off to eradicate it, will it be something that will haunt me for the rest of my life?

“I thought there would be some permanent damage. But I was lucky enough that three weeks ago I got another CAT scan, and, in between that I’ve been taking plenty of medication and constantly seeing the doctor, and it was 100 per cent clear.

“I’m a distance swimmer. I have to put more hours in and it has to be a little bit more extreme, the training, because it’s an endurance event. I’m prepared to do that to the extent of … making my body ill, which is a little bit sad but that’s what you have to do.

“You’re on that knife’s edge - not only me, all athletes are - and I sometimes push myself over that knife’s edge.

“I kid myself, if it’s a sore throat, that I’ll wake up in the morning and it will be fine. And it’s not. At times I’ve been my own worst enemy, but at the same time it’s been my best asset, it’s been what’s enabled me to win. But this was the final wake-up call that I needed to go: ‘OK, Grant, if you do have a sore throat … have a session off. Have a couple of days off, don’t try to train through it and make it worse.”‘

Hackett said that he never considered not swimming the 1500m in Athens, but as the week went on his health deteriorated, and in the final he “did what was necessary” to win. When it was done he climbed out of the pool, stood on top of the starting blocks and raised his arms in jubilation, looking as if he was about to collapse.

“The way I felt after that race, I’ve felt close to that before; people just noticed it more this time because of the wobbly legs. I got up on the blocks, and nearly fell off. There was no stage I thought I wouldn’t race. … I’m a competitor. If I was on my death bed I would have gotten up and raced that thing.”

History beckons in Beijing for Hackett. No man has won three successive Olympic 1500m golds. Kieren Perkins came close with gold in Barcelona, Atlanta, then silver in Sydney behind Hackett, who can now emulate Dawn Fraser by winning the same event at three consecutive Olympics. “It’s crossed my mind a couple of times because everyone has spoken about it so much,” he said.

“I just keep thinking I’m not going to worry about it, and I’ll do the best I can and if I get three in a row, great. And it would be great to be in that company with those other athletes who have done it. But I’ve surpassed anything I thought I would achieve in the sport … Just to do two [Olympic golds] is fantastic, and to do three, wow, it would be a bonus.

“I want to improve over the next four years on my 14 minutes 34 seconds and I’m prepared to do what it takes. But three in a row … I’m not going to put it in my mind as this be-all and end-all thing, because it’s honestly not.”

How long Hackett has left in the pool is unknown. He said he was still highly motivated to swim and wouldn’t walk away after Beijing.

“I would like to go a year or two longer than Beijing, because I’m not sure it would be healthy to retire after the Olympics,” he said. “Maybe in five or six years it could be the time for me to retire.

I’ll only be 28 [in Beijing], and that’s not old, so it’s not whether you can do it physically, it’s whether you want to do it mentally.”