Australia and the Olympic Games
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Australia and the Olympic Games 1968 Mexico Olympics Performances Conditions and Performance A unique aspect of every Olympic Games is the climatic conditions for the time of year. The Mexico Games of 1968 were held in October but the significant issue was the altitude of the site. Mexico city is about 2240 metres above sea level and this means the air is thinner. High performance sporting events at this altitude can really test the endurance and health of all the athletes. But it can also enhance performances in some events. Ron Clarke’s Mexico Olympic Games illustrates the issues of altitude and its possible effect on athlete performances. Source: Photo Moment: http://media.olympics.com.au/collection/best‐of‐1960‐1976‐gallery/page4BA7B4B0‐ 9DCE‐11DF‐A06B005056B04A53/5 Focus: The altitude factor at the Mexico Olympics 1968. Activity Investigate the significance of the Mexico City altitude factor on athletes, such as Australia’s Ron Clarke. Find out what problems were anticipated and what was learnt? General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude_training http://www.faqs.org/sports‐science/Ha‐Ja/High‐Altitude‐Effects‐on‐Sport‐Performance.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842358,00.html Australia and the Olympic Games 1968 Mexico Olympics Performances Ron Clarke’s experiences Investigate the problems which Ron Clarke faced in the altitude conditions. Source: National Library of Australia: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic‐vn3061983 Review the weblinks below and read Ron Clarke’s Games in an extract from Harry Gordon’s book. Photo moment: http://media.olympics.com.au/collection/best‐of‐1960‐1976‐ gallery/page4BA7B4B0‐9DCE‐11DF‐A06B005056B04A53/5 AOC profile: http://corporate.olympics.com.au/athlete/ron‐clarke Athletics Australia: http://www.athletics.com.au/fanzone/hall_of_fame/ron_clarke Racing Past: http://www.racingpast.ca/john_contents.php?id=157 Other events Long Jump ‐ Bob Beamon’s world record long jump (Video) : http://www.2016jo.com/videos‐bob‐ beamons‐world‐record‐long‐jump‐%5BDEt_Xgg8dzc%5D.cfm Rowing ‐ Read about the experiences of the rowers, in particular Rammage in the coxless pairs. http://www.rowinghistory‐aus.info/olympic‐Games/1968‐MexicoCity.php Further ‐ The Unforgiving Minute, Ron Clarke (with Alan Trengove), 1966. Australia and the Olympic Games 1968 Mexico Olympics Performances Ron Clarke’s Games The predictions of Toyne and Corrigan proved accurate — almost tragically so in the case of Ron Clarke. The jumping in the rarified air was phenomenal: Bob Beamon leaped 8.90 metres (29 ft 2‘/2 in) to destroy the world record; the triple‐jump world record was broken nine times before Russia’s Viktor Saneev won; Dick Fosbury, using a revolutionary back‐to‐ the‐bar technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop, soared over every height easily to win the high jump with an Olympic record of 2.24 metres (7 ft 41/2 in). The American sprinters ]ames Hines and Tommie Smith set world records of 9.95 seconds (100 metres) and 19.83 seconds (200 metres) respectively to win their gold medals. Times in the distance runs were significantly slower than had been achieved at low altitude. Clarke entered for the 5000 and 10,000 metres and, as world record‐holder for both events, was seen by many as Australia’s strongest hope at the Games. After his early visit to Mexico City with Izrael Zimmerman, though, he was never really confident about his prospects. Aware that athletes from France, Russia and the United States had training camps at high altitudes within their own borders, he had joined a group of French runners for a short stay in 1968 at a camp in the Pyrenees. An IOC ruling insisted that such visits by outsiders be limited to four weeks;it was an unsatisfactory compromise which did very little to assist the fairness of the competition. In the 10,000 metres, on the first day of competition, Clarke’s main rivals included the Kenyan tribesman Naftali Temu, the Ethiopian Mamo Wolde and the Mexican Juan Martinez, all of whom lived and trained at heights above 2134 metres. Clarke, who was running as well as he ever had at sea level, took advice from Franz Stampfl; the plan he settled on was to nurse himself over most of the race, but give maximum effort over the final 2000 metres. He adhered to it — but with a lap and a half to go, placed second to Wolde and still apparently with an excellent chance of winning, he suddenly ran out of oxygen. It was like hitting a wall. He staggered on, quite grey now, virtually unconscious but still on his feet; he dragged himself somehow to the finishing line, and dropped. As Corrigan saw the signs that meant Clarke had passed all limits of endurance, he began to barge his way from his seat in the stadium to the track. Then, somehow, he was beside Clarke’s inert body. “I have no idea how I got there,” he recalled years later. “I remember thinking he was going to die. There was a huge moat, a fence, all kinds of security. I have no memory of any of it.”1° No resuscitative equipment was available at the stadium, only at hospitals in the city. All Corrigan could do, as Clarke lay beneath a blanket, was administer oxygen and pray. Ray Weinberg, the athletics manager, tried to make Clarke comfortable. Watching the still body on the grass from the stand, the marathon runner Derek Clayton wept. “I haven’t done that since I was a young boy,” he said later. “Spectators around me were crying, too." After 60 Australia and the Olympic Games 1968 Mexico Olympics Performances litres of oxygen and an anxious hour for Corrigan and Toyne, Clarke recovered consciousness, although David McKenzie said later that he could not speak coherently for more than two days. Corrigan’s recollection: “I was frankly worried that he might die. What we didn't — couldn’t — realise then was that he suffered heart damage, rupturing a valve controlling the heart muscle. In simple terms, he almost died, to prove that you can’t run at your top at that kind of altitude.”“ Temu was the winner, with a time nearly two minutes outside Clarke’s world record of 27 min 39.4 sec, and Clarke was placed sixth. Clarke made another valiant attempt in the 5000 metres, in which the second, third and fourth placegetters in the final were all men from the mountains. The Tunisian Mohammed Gammoudi won it, and Clarke was fifth. The Kenyan Kip Keino won the 1500 metres and finished second in the 5000 metres. Clarke retained little memory of the drama of the 10,000 metres run: “There was an awful tiredness in all my limbs, a difficulty even in seeing. But I had to finish. It was a matter of pride.” Harry Gordon, Australia and the Olympic Games, Queensland University Press, 1996 (3rd edition), p273‐274 .