GOLDEN POOL OF COAST TALENT
Plenty of local athletes are hoping to follow the trail blazed by the likes of Andrew Baildon and Giaan Rooney
THE first days of the Commonwealth Games have been an incredible success, with amazing competition in and out of the pool.
With the Gold Coast on the world stage, there are plenty of local athletes hoping to come away with gold in front of their friends and family.
In previous Games the city has seen homegrown heroes make their mark, striking it big.
It’s January 1990: Bob Hawke is in his penultimate year as Prime Minister, They Might Be Giants top the charts with Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and Andrew Baildon becomes a swimming sensation.
The Southport-born superstar and son of Cr Gary Baildon had already impressed on the 1988 Olympic team at Seoul while he was in his final year at school.
While he didn’t medal that year, Baildon showed audiences he was a force to be reckoned with and was again selected to represent Australia at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.
In a stunning haul, Baildon won five medals, including four gold in the pool.
These included the 50m and 100m freestyle, the 100m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay.
Also in 1990, he was the world’s top-ranked 100m short course butterfly swimmer.
He later won another gold and bronze at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada where he also served as team captain.
Just four years later, another Gold Coaster proved themselves to be a superstar.
At the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games, 15-year-old schoolgirl Giaan Rooney stunned the swimming world to claim a gold medal in the 100m backstroke in her event debut.
The victory over Canadian Kelly Stefanshyn and Olympian Meredith Smith came after a four-day bout of gastro.
Rooney got off to a flying start from lane seven and was not threatened during the race, powering home to a Commonwealth Games record.
“This just shows you what dreams can do. It’s just such a wonderful feeling,” she told the Bulletin shortly after her September 14, 1998 victory.
“It’s just such an unbelievable feeling.
“I never thought it would happen so soon.”
Rooney, then a Year 11 student at All Saints Anglican School, had not won an Australia, open title and had not been expected to win a medal, let alone gold.
Following her win, Rooney praised her coach Denis Cotterell.
“He’s just such an inspiration to me. He’s the best coach anyone could have. He’s an absolute legend.”
Cotterell admitted he had put the swimmer under significant pressure before her race.
He said he had taken her aside three times before the race and could not remember speaking harsher wards in his then-three decades in the sport, making his young charge angry.
“She wasn’t in the right frame of mind and I had to do something,” he said.
“I can’t divulge what I said buy I put her under tremendous mental pressure.
“I thought she swam it perfectly.”
Rooney went on to win a second gold in the 4x100m medley at the Games.
After graduating from high school in 1999 she went on to win two silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a gold in Athens and silver at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games before retiring.