Tassie’s Gould a symbol as well as a survivor

Unassuming champ wins with strength and honour, explains Claire Sutherland

THIS year’s Survivor Australia winner summed it up best herself. “Don’t f...k with Shane Gould.”

The 61-year-old swimming champion this week simultaneously won enough money to build herself a house in Tasmania, and became an inspirational symbol for older Australians.

“You don’t have to warehouse yourself and sit in a rocking chair knitting bootees,” she said on one episode of the WIN TV show, soon after a challenge which involved dangling upside down from a wide wooden pole, to which she held on serenely while younger, ostensibly stronger competitors dropped into a mud pit.

She also saw off the likes of rugby star Mat Rogers and trainer Commando Steve Willis in a challenge involving sitting in a ab-burning V position while holding a box up with her feet.

“Look at Shane go,” Commando murmured admiringly in one episode as he watched her slice through the water as if she had a motor attached to her back, leaving young competitors — and every one of them was younger — in her wake.

“She’s just so graceful in the water,” third placegetter and former AFL champ Brian Lake agreed.

The then 60-year-old Shane Gould was as tough as her younger competitors.

As the notoriously brutal game kicked off, it seemed unlikely Gould would go the distance. Quiet, unassuming, and not prone to plotting, she had none of the qualities of a Survivor winner.

Fast-forward a few episodes and she had proven herself as cunning as any of the best players. She just didn’t flaunt her villainy or big note herself. It didn’t take her long to work out the way to slay Brian Lake was via his ego. The moment she swallowed her own disgust and cosied up to him with compliments on his power and position was the moment she came into her own.

Tina Wesson, who won the US version of Survivor in 2001, is widely regarded as the only player to win without stabbing someone in the back. Shane Gould can add herself to that short list.

She didn’t betray anyone she’d made promises to and while she’s been criticised for not making big flashy moves, her strategy involved planting seeds, listening carefully and finding cracks where nobody else saw them.

“I’m inclined to do a blindside,” she murmured when weighing up what to do about powerhouse Lydia Lassila, and that quiet moment was about as vicious as she got.

It’s undoubtedly true she was helped to the win thanks to Victorian prosecutor Sharn Coombes making a big mistake, but equally, the evicted players sent their votes her way in a close race thanks to the relationships she’d formed and the sheer force of their admiration for her.

As Fenella exclaimed during the finale, “I did a project on her in Year 5!”

Survivor is just a silly reality show at heart, but Tuesday night was an excellent reminder that we underestimate older Australians too often.

Tuesday night was an excellent reminder that we underestimate older Australians too often