By BENNY PIKE
LIFE saving is a wonderful Aussie culture and has played an enormous role in the development of our country over the past 100 years.
Sydney’s Manly Beach kickstarted the evolution way back in 1901, when people weren’t allowed to swim in the surf between 6am and 6pm. Local paper editor William Goucher broke the rule and then put it on the front page. As you would expect, rallies followed and weight of public response forced the silly time-line to be cancelled.
But it was three years later at Bondi, when the first ever official recording of a rescue was listed. A skinny kid call Charlie Smith was dragged out of the water, by future Olympian Frank Beaurepaire. Yes, he was the founder of Beaurepair Tyres and went on to represent Australia for many years.
So what happened to Mr Smith you ask?
Well Charlie stamped himself as a pioneer of everything that’s good about being an Aussie. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith later wowed the world with his aviation feats, and along with Bundaberg’s Bert Hinkler and Amelia Earhart put Australia right on the runway of world travel.
It wasn’t long after that when life saver Cecil Healy again displayed the Aussie spirit that has defined our nation.
Healy was a member of the Australian Swimming Team for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, and the Manly life saver was a great chance to win the 100 freestyle. After some disputes, the Amercians were suspended from racing which meant the hot favourite Duke Kahanamoku would miss out.
The Amercians had missed the semis, but Healy – in an extradinory show of sportsmanship – insisted to Australian officals and then the International Olympic jury that it would be an injustice if the Duke was forced to miss the final.
They swam in their own semi-final, where the Duke set a new world record of 1.02.4 and then went on to win the final – and gold medal – relegating Healy to the silver.
Olympic historian Harry Gordon wrote: “Healy gave a demonstration of the immaculate sportsmanship which characterised his career. He in fact, sacrificed the prospect of an individual gold medal to ensure that his own version of justice was served”.
Southport life saver Grant Davies had his moment in the sun, claiming a silver behind American Greg Barton in the K1 1000 metres Kayak event at the Seoul ’88 Olympics. The stocky Australian looked to have stolen victory and it was minutes later that after a review of the finish, officals reversed the order of placings. This was after having Davies’s name on the screen as winner.
Grant shook Barton’s hand, and despite not achieving his dream, proudly smiled when awarded his silver.
Thankfully, the wait for gold was only four years away, when in Barcelona ’92, Maroochydore and now Sunshine Beach coach Clint Robinson hung on to defeat red hot favourite Norway’s Knut Holman.
It was the first of Clint’s five Olympic campaigns, but he like Grant, Cecil, Charlie, Frank and the Duke all lived a dream that started from life saving.
Until next time.
