“Hmmm …cool I suppose.” I didn’t know what to say, I hadn’t been back to Sydney for 14 years and now, here I was standing by the Opera House, looking at where I had leaped onto the top of the podium.
I was the girl from Scotland, with the biggest smile, winning what was to be her first Olympic gold medal.
I’m not sure, hand on heart, that I genuinely thought it would happen. So much had to come together at the right time and Sydney was my third Olympic campaign. I knew how easy it was to get it wrong, how narrow the margin is between hero and zero.
13 years on…. first time back…the best of memories. pic.twitter.com/jjELr5DOfl
But standing here 14 years on, waiting for a reaction, tears even, felt hollow, it didn’t feel like “my place.” Perhaps too much time had passed — children, work, another gold medal.
My colleague rolled his eyes in disbelief, hoping for some sort of “moment.” How could I not feel “it?” Wasn’t it the greatest memory of my life? Wasn’t it right here that my everything changed forever? What was wrong with me?
–
Despite the helicopter noise and spectator boats, it had been oddly silent. I had an eye on my opposition for sure, but to win here my focus couldn’t be them — it was this harbor.
Sydney harbor could bite, you had to understand it, expect the unexpected — and I did. By the last lap, gold was mine to lose. I held my nerve and crossed that finish line one last time.
My life had changed, forever.
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