How Bad Do You Want It? by Matt Fitzgerald

Author:Matt Fitzgerald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI

CHAPTER SEVEN

TODAY’S WEAKNESS,

TOMORROW’S

STRENGTH

ONE OF THE MOST compelling images to come out of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was a photograph taken outside competition, during the medal ceremony that followed the final of the men’s double sculls rowing event. The photo shows the six medalists—representing three teams—standing side by side on a carpeted dock at the edge of Dorney Lake, site of the just-completed race.

What is striking about the image is the relative size of the athletes. The two in the middle look tiny—almost miniaturized—in relation to the pairs on either side of them. At the far left of the frame is Italy’s Romano Battisti, dressed in a black warm-up suit. Like the others, he wears a ribbon-slung medal around his neck and holds a bouquet of multicolored flowers at his waist. Battisti is a big man: 6 feet, 3 inches tall and 203 pounds in weight. Beside him towers his boat mate Alessio Sartori, a veritable giant at 6 feet, 8 inches and 220 pounds. At the far right of the grouping looms Iztok Cop of Slovenia, wearing the blue-and-green unisuit and white undershirt he raced in. His dimensions are 6 feet, 3 inches and 198 pounds. To Iztok’s left stands his teammate Luka Spik, another behemoth at 6 feet, 5 inches and 209 pounds. Sandwiched between these strapping duos and utterly dwarfed by them is the black-clad New Zealand team. Nathan Cohen is barely 6 feet tall and weighs 192 pounds. His partner Joseph Sullivan is a mere 5 feet, 11 inches and 178 pounds.

The central placement of the Kiwis amplifies the power of the image, and not only by exaggerating their comparative smallness. Olympic tradition dictates that gold medalists be placed in the middle of the lineup at medal ceremonies. In a sport that rewards size and punishes its lack, little Nathan Cohen and tiny Joseph Sullivan had beaten the Goliaths on either side of them.

JOE SULLIVAN WAS 9 years old when he watched the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta from his family’s home in North Canterbury, on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Before the Olympic flame was snuffed, Joe was consumed by the dream of becoming an Olympian, although he couldn’t have said in which sport. His best talent at that time was general hyperactivity.

At age 13, Joe moved with his family to the small seaside town of Picton. He enrolled at the local high school, Queen Charlotte College, where he channeled his overabundant energy into cross country running and track and field. A slender kid of average height, Joe had the right physique for these sports and did fairly well.

When Joe was still a freshman, his athleticism caught the attention of a senior member of the rowing team, who encouraged the younger boy to try his hand at sculling. Within a week, Joe was building calluses with his new teammates in daily workouts on Picton Harbour, a busy fishing area where human-powered craft were frequently swamped by the wakes of passing trawlers. Joe was an unlikely rower.

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