Hackett’s gold a nation’s favourite

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GRANT Hackett’s hard fought 1500m gold medal swim was Australia’s most memorable highlight of the Athens Olympic games.

Australia’s swimmers dominated a survey of viewer preferences during the Athens Games, with Hackett’s second consecutive Olympic gold topping the list of sporting moments in Greece.

“It’s wonderful to hear something like that, the fact that the public responds so well to my swim,” Hackett said.

“I’m just out there doing my best and that’s as simple as it is, competing in something I love.

“The fact that so many people were able to enjoy that moment with me is an awesome experience, it’s very humbling and I’m very taken aback by it to be honest.”

Hackett’s swim finished ahead of the women’s 4×100m medley relay gold medal swim and the men’s hockey team’s long sought trip to the top of the podium.

Swimming Australia CEO Glenn Tasker said Hackett’s swim was so popular because he was forced to overcome a serious chest problem.

“Anybody who saw Grant’s heat swim in the 1500m knew that Grant had a problem … so when he came out still ill for the final, to watch him win that race under those circumstances was very, very special indeed.”

Forty seven per cent of those surveyed said swimming was their No.1 Olympic sport, lengths ahead of the next best, gymnastics, at eight per cent.

Athletics came in at seven per cent, diving at six, while cycling registered four per cent of the vote of 750 people, aged between 16 and 65. The survey was conducted by Sweeny Sports in Australia’s capital cities.

“The reasons those sort of percentages come through is one, obviously that we’re winning events, but two the public knows our swimmers,” Swimming Australia CEO Glenn Tasker said.

“It’s not just the athletic performance that people are looking at, I think they understand our swimmers are good human beings.”

Six of the top eight choices for the favourite Australian individual competitor or team were swimmers.

Dual gold medallist Ian Thorpe led the field, with teammates Hackett, Petria Thomas and Jodie Henry close behind.

The men’s hockey team, the women’s 4×100m medley team, the entire swim team and shooter Suzanne Balogh all finished in the top 10.

Meanwhile, Gymnastics Australia is doing flips over the survey result.

“It’s absolutely fantastic,” CEO Jane Allen said.

“The skill and difficulty of gymnastics fascinates the sports lover in Australia, I think they look at the sport and say `that is just fantastic’.”

Allen said she hopes the sport’s television popularity will convert into bums on seats when Melbourne hosts the gymnastics world championships in November 2005 and the Commonwealth Games in March 2006.

Martin Hirons, director of Sweeny Sports, said there were no real surprises in the survey, with swimming’s success due to three key ingredients.

“It’s been the one sport over the last four Olympics that we’ve been able to have success at,” he said.

“It’s now on mainstream tv through the year … so it’s well packaged … and the fact that it occupies the first week (of the Olympics), which is realistically the time when interest is going to be the highest.”