'There was more to me than the child prodigy' - Shane Gould was one of the top stars, after which she disappeared

Created: 08/27/2022, 07:05

By: Gunter Klein

The female swimming star from Munich: Shane Gould (on the right during training) – and as the winner of the 200 m individual medley race (with Kornelia Ender, GDR, silver) and Lynn Vidali (USA).

© IMAGO/HORSTMÜLLER

Shane Gould, a swimmer from Australia, was one of the big stars of the 1972 Olympic Games with three gold, one silver and one bronze.

She was only 15, and at the awards ceremony she held a stuffed kangaroo in her hands that a teammate had given her.

But her sports career ended a good year after Munich.

But why?

And then what?

A conversation with the 65-year-old today.

Ms. Gould, how fresh are the days in Munich for you?

A long time ago, but they are nice memories of a big event in my life.

I was so young, 15, it shaped my identity and had a huge impact on my self-image.

I perceive the success and the lessons from it as a treasure.

You were in Munich for a relatively long time in 1972: two weeks before the start and until the end of the games, so a good month.

As a young team member, however, I didn't have the opportunity to move to the city in 1972.

After the assassination – and by then my competitions had just ended – my parents took me to Trudering, where they stayed during the games.

They took me to the Alps, where I saw snow for the first time, and to the Black Forest.

What the time in Munich definitely helped me with: I had had German language and culture at school in Australia for three years - I got through my German exams more easily.

In 2000 I returned to Munich for the Masters Swimming World Championships.

I decided to do this in order to see Munich properly.

When I jumped back into that pool – it was déjà vu.

I knew they had renovated it, but I remembered the tiles at the bottom of the pool.

They were much more visible now that I was wearing goggles, which weren't there in 1972.

My memories became palpable.

Everything: the colors of Munich, the architecture, the pomp of the celebrations and the brass bands, the grassy hills, the beautiful mascot Waldi.

But first, 1972 gave you a hard time.

Your success made you feel alienated from the rest of the team and, looking back, you said there were two Shane Goulds in Munich: the media character, happy, successful - but also the girl catapulted into the adult world and felt strange there.

I've thought about it and observed other people who stand out on teams and get special attention.

It was practical for me at the time that the managers and coaches had to invest a lot of time in me because I was facing special challenges.

They had to protect me, I was a child, in my teens.

Yes, it created alienation, but it was the price of success.

Mark Spitz was the star among the men, after the games he became an advertising icon and a millionaire.

Your story started off with you running away from home for a few days with your savings, $30.

I told this story with the 30 dollars to show that I was actually a normal girl who was looking for her own way - in a world that had become complicated by my fame, my fame.

You stopped, after the Olympics, at the age of 16 - everyone thinks: In order to earn money, it had to be like this.

It was a very strict amateur status thing at the time.

You lost it when you made money with your sport.

The idea of ​​retiring at 16 meant something different than 2020. The world was different, everything happened more slowly, with no immediate communication and results.

Sports stars have been used in other ways to sell products.

And I think if I had been a man they would have found ways to keep me in the sport.

But unlike Spitz, you largely disappeared from the public eye.

I identified myself as a project-driven person.

I like projects: you dream of something, develop it, live it and put it away – and then do something else.

The training from the age of seven or eight, the competitions - that was the project that led to the identity "Shane Gould, the swimmer". I completed it on my 17th birthday and was very satisfied.

Even though it was such a powerful identity, I had this instinct: There is more in me and for me to discover, to develop and to express.

That's part of the problem as the child prodigy that I was.

We see young musicians, actors struggling as they mature.

Stuck in a mono identity, they must explore other aspects of their character.

I have done many interesting things in my life,

because I have many interests: horses, agriculture, culture, photography.

And it's also part of me to be a married woman and raise children.

However, I also had to learn to embrace what I had denied for some time: my time as an athlete.

My first husband was not a sports fan, which led to conflict despite many common interests.

He found the public energy associated with the “Shane Gould, the swimmer” label threatening.

this led to conflict despite many common interests.

He found the public energy associated with the “Shane Gould, the swimmer” label threatening.

this led to conflict despite many common interests.

He found the public energy associated with the “Shane Gould, the swimmer” label threatening.

Shane Gould in Canberra - the picture was taken in 2020.

© imago

How is your family situation today?

My eldest son married a German woman, she is from Dresden, they have been living in Dortmund for six years and have two children - so there is a German line of the Gould family.

My son was then also in Munich, he visited the Olympic Village and swam in the pool where I had swum.

This made everything his mom did more tangible for him.

My now husband and I travel a lot, we have a project in Sweden where we help people with brain damage or autism enjoy the water.

I use the stays there to make detours to Dortmund – preferably by train.

I like watching the scenery out the window, the age of civilization in Germany is a stark contrast to Australia.

My connection to Germany is strong,

In your 1997 autobiography "Tumble Turns" you closed a life phase of "25 years of self-pity"

.

I don't know if it was self-pity.

More like confusion.

I'm a researcher, I wanted to know: what does it mean to be an Olympic champion, how does it fit into my life?

It was a strange experience that maybe I should have been older for: training, swimming competitively, it was easy.

But being thrown into the adult world can limit you as a person.

The most important sentence of your book: To be an Olympic champion is like wearing a brand, on your body, on your soul.

I think so too 25 years after I wrote it.

It was privilege and responsibility towards my success.

In Australia I'm well known, well famous, a sports legend - but I've never lived a typical celebrity life, never had to sell myself.

I use my reputation, I take a fee for appearances as a speaker, I enjoy meeting interesting people, helping young athletes with fundraising and finding a stage for my ideas.

This is more infotainment than entertainment.

Yes, I wear the brand as an Olympic champion and use it.

Interview: Gunter Klein

The eventful life of Shane Gould

Her father was an aviation manager, so Shane Gould spent part of her childhood in Fiji.

There she started swimming.

Back in Australia and at 14 she was the best in the world.

In 1971 in London she swam record after record, she is the only woman to hold all world records from 100 to 1500 meters freestyle.

She says, "It felt like a no-brainer."

Her training days started with the alarm clock ringing at 4:27 a.m. - at 4:45 a.m. she jumped into the water.

Your weekly workload: 64 kilometers.

Her resting heart rate was 38 to 42 beats.

In 1972 in Munich she experienced the media hype surrounding her.

She was the "Goldfish from Australia".

The Americans greeted her with T-shirts that provocatively read: "All that glitters is not Gould." Shane Gould won five medals (gold in the 200 m individual medley, 200 and 400 m freestyle in world record times, silver in the 800 m freestyle, bronze over 100 m freestyle).

The caption "Shane Fails!" when she finished second irritated the 15-year-old.

She asked, "Isn't three gold enough?"

She was celebrated at home.

She was named “Australian of the Year” and had to do a lap of honor in a convertible in front of 100,000 spectators in the football stadium.

In 1973 she was initially still in top form, during a five-month stay with a family friend in California she gained 13 kilos and swam "times like when she was 12".

´She canceled for the World Cup in Belgrade.

Her father in particular advised her to end her career.

Shane Gould felt guilty that her three sisters received far less attention than she did.

"What has my success cost others?" In addition, "the competition had changed my relationship to water, it was no longer spiritual." She decided to retire.

On her 17th birthday, she signed a representative contract with Adidas/Arena - $50,000 for ten years.

After a year she quit - she had been sexually harassed three times.

Married Neal Innes at 20.

For more than 20 years she lived a secluded life in Margaret River, connected to Catholicism.

She had four children, worked with horses, farmed, surfed, taught swimming.

Money was tight.

When she was invited to a TV show promoting the Berlin Olympics 2000 bid in the early 1990s, she first had to sell a tea tree in order to be able to pay the passport fee.

The marriage broke up – also because her husband hit her.

A constant point of conflict: her history as a sports star, the media repeatedly sought contact with her - so she returned to commercial life.

In 1997, she concluded her self-pity years with her autobiography Tumble Turns.

She swam again in competitions (Masters, setting some age records in the process).

She was involved in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, her hometown, and was one of the torch bearers in the stadium.

Shane Gould studied environmental management and geography, photographs, paints and is married again.