Young sport stars get plenty of inspiration from a local legend
WELLINGTON’S Paralympic gold medallist Ben Austin was guest speaker at the Regional Sports Awards last Friday night. Ben recalled the moment in his early years, lapping the Wellington Pool, that brought him to an Australian uniform.
“I remember making the shadow team for the Paralympics. I was the only country athlete in the squad. The others were amazed that we could only train for five months of the year!
“Without an indoor pool I had to do a lot of running and gym work, but of course that was using different muscles, or at least, using them differently,” Ben explained.
“Sometimes I swam in the river. Dad would supervise me in the water as I swam against or across the current... It taught me water safety and awareness and was really good for strengthening my kick.”
Ben’s talent was recognised early as he left able-bodied swimmers in his wake and then he was selected to represent Australia for Sydney 2000.
WELLINGTON’S Paralympic gold medallist Ben Austin was guest speaker at the Regional Sports Awards on Friday night.
As emcee of the awards, I had the privilege of chatting with him ahead of the presentation of certificates to Australian, State and regional representatives.
Ben recalled the moment in his early years, lapping the Wellington Pool, that brought him to an Australian uniform.
“I remember making the shadow team for the Paralympics. I was the only country athlete in the squad. The others were amazed that we could only train for five months of the year!
“Without an indoor pool I had to do a lot of running and gym work, but of course that was using different muscles, or at least, using them differently,” Ben explained.
“Sometimes I swam in the river. Dad would supervise me in the water as I swam against or across the current. I would pick a marker, a stick on the bank, and keep an eye on it. It taught me water safety and awareness and was really good for strengthening my kick.”
Ben was in awe of the story I retold of Cal Smith and Aspen Moore who, as reported here in Dubbo Photo News throughout 2018, swam in wetsuits outdoors right up until June after the local pools were closed.
“That’s commitment! To get in the water in June takes guts and real motivation – even if you have a wetsuit! It takes dedication but if you show that in the early stages of your career it pays off in the long term. You get the rewards for your sacrifices,” the multiple gold-medallist told an enthralled audience.
“That’s the make you or break you stage. Cal and Aspen epitomise the class of country sportspeople who may lack the allyear-round facilities, access to first class coaches and Institutes of Sport, but make up for it with tenacity and the strength to overcome whatever life throws at us.”
Ben’s talent was recognised early as he left able-bodied swimmers in his wake and then he was selected for Sydney 2000.
“It was such a surreal time. I was very green. I’d barely any international racing experience so when I was picked they sent me to Canberra AIS to get me some exposure to what I might expect at the Games.”
Ben said marching with the Australian team that October, was like a dream.
“I was really nervous walking out on the pool deck for my first swim. It was really exciting but at the same time my nerves got the best of me. They always had, even when I was playing footy for the Cowboys. I remember jumping in for my first race, the 200 metres Individual Medley (IM). It was one of my favourite events but as soon as I dived in the water, I felt like a brick!
“I was ranked number one in the world for the event and was rocketing up the rankings in all strokes, but I was eight seconds off my best time in the heat,” Ben reflected.
“I was relaxed, I was training well and I was happy, but when I got into the stadium the butterflies kicked in big time. It was really intimidating. I was so excited and then I jumped in. The crowd, the atmosphere, it was such a new thing.
“I just scraped into the finals and had four hours with a psychologist to get myself together. I actually went under the existing world record in the final but finished just behind a Chinese swimmer. “It was such a crazy ride!”
Ben had some sage advice for aspiring athletes.
“It is all about mental toughness. A lot of athletes have the talent, the speed, the strength and the potential, but it still comes down to your ability to handle your body’s mental torture. You need to be tough enough mentally to not let things get to you.”
Ben said as his career moved on he realised it came down to not thinking too much.
“As athletes we train every single day at Olympic level. We are doing up to 40km a week in the pool, we have all these recovery sessions, we live and breathe sport, but we still find it hard to trust ourselves, to trust our coach. That small per centage of doubt in your mind takes a lot of energy out of you, more than you realise, so in sport it’s really about refining that mindset and making sure you can swim with an empty mind and run with an empty mind and really trust yourself.
“If you do this, it also allows you to have fun. You know, fun’s a big part of your mindset. When you take things too seriously you have a lot of burden, you put a lot of pressure on yourself, so it’s keeping that fun in what you do and developing that mental talent. It takes time; it takes a lot of practice,” Ben offered.
When the Manchester Commonwealth Games came around in 2002, it was announced the Australian team would include four Elite Athletes with a Disability in an integrated swimming program.
“It was a big moment for me. Before Manchester I was an IM swimmer but when the opportunity to swim at the same meet as the able-bodied, I had to adjust to become a freestyle sprint racer. At the AIS I had spent two years doing a lot of distance work and a lot of specific training for medley. I wasn’t that fast in terms of pure speed.
“I think I overtrained a bit but it was actually a blessing. Coming from the bush with no mileage at all was a bit of a shock.
“It took two years to get used to that extreme workload. I had to train every single session knowing that if I didn’t meet the high standards I would lose my spot at the AIS. That training bore fruit at the trials for the Comm Games. Once I started doing freestyle, I freshened up and found some extra speed I didn’t know I had.”
Ben said he also made some minor technical changes.
“Under the astute eye of the coaches including my dad, I switched sides from breathing on my left side with my short arm, to the right, and it made an immediate difference. I took four seconds off my sprint time!”
After nearly 15 years at the top, it was time to get “back into real life”. “It was a tough transition! “I remember going to Delhi, my third Commonwealth Games. I was going to retire after Beijing in 2008 but I decided to go to Delhi because I felt I hadn’t really had the complete performance. I was always in search of that.
“Once I got to Delhi and won the gold medal I felt I had achieved what I had set out to do and it was time to move on.”
Ben said it was more about finding out what it meant to have a mental edge.
“You have full trust in yourself and just get in and swim. I achieved my goal – and my gold medal – at 30 years of age and overcame the young guys who kept telling me they would cut me down!
“I remember the distinct feeling after that race that this was it! I didn’t have the same motivation or feeling for it anymore.
“You can’t really plan it. It’s just when your mind and your body tells you that’s it. So after that race – and it was very abrupt – I just knew it was my time to finish.”
What has Ben been doing over the past ten years?
“I’d been so focussed on my swimming, I hadn’t developed my passions to come through. Having lived for over a decade as an elite athlete I decided to travel and I ended up living in the US for a while and actually I spent a good decade finding myself outside of sport.”
Ben began sharing his experiences on a Public Speaking circuit.
“It allowed me to make sense of my journey and integrating the ups and downs into my whole life. Once I had done that, I began to move forward.
Ben Austin is now back home in Wellington and “living a normal life”.
“I really think it’s important for athletes to focus on passions outside of their chosen sport and prepare for later when it is not the centre of everything. We talk a lot about planning for transition but when you’re focussed on what you are doing it’s hard to hear those other voices, so I’d encourage everyone to become aware of the support networks. It will make the future steps easier.”
Ben also had good things to say about the great Kurt Fearnley.
“Kurt and I have the central west connection and would often share jokes about the bush when we were at training or at Games. We are both really proud of our bush roots.
“Kurt personifies never giving up. It’s not just the sporting achievements, he’s continually finding a way to show humanity that there are no limitations. Even though he’s a veteran athlete now, he still finds ways to complete those monster marathons. He’s crawled the Kokoda Trail. His attitude’s incredible,” Ben said with total admiration.
“Kurt’s hard to sum up in a few words because I think he is still evolving as an athlete and as a person. He keeps on surprising the public.”