Author Rochelle Nicholls says her book examining the life of Manly surf life saver and Olympian swimmer-turned-soldier Cecil Healy has lessons relevant to today’s athletes.
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Dr Nicholls has spent three years researching Healy – the only Australian Olympic gold medallist killed in war and has written Hell and High Water.
On Wednesday, the book was launched in Sydney by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
Dr Nicholls said Healy represented some of the best values as a sportsman and described him as a “complex character”.
“The sporting element attract me first, he had a 20 year sports career, earning renown around the world, but is best remembered for a race he didn’t win,” Dr Nicholls said.
During the 1912 Olympics, Healy’s closet rival, American Duke Kahanamoku, was disqualified for being late.
Healy, who was the then world champion believed any victory would be hollow without Kahanamoku racing, so he staged a protest. Healy’s appeal won, Kahanamoku was re-instated and won the gold medal.
“He was a beloved public figure in Australia and was humble in both victory and defeat,” Dr Nicholls said.
She said Healy didn’t have the ‘win at all costs’ attitude and culture which had become so prevalent among athletes today – as seen most recently in the Australian cricket team.
“Lately, we’ve seen a lot of sports heroes come out and admit they have the same challenges we all do,” Dr Nicholls said.
Among sportsmen saying they were under pressure and suffering from mental and emotional stress have been Buddy Franklin, Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Greg Inglis and Darius Boyd.
“There’s some serious conversations we need to have about how we support our male athletes,” she said.
“If what Cecil Healy struggled through is still being reflected in what our male athletes are going through now, there’s some difficult conversations around mental and emotional health in sport.”
Healy’s drive to continually prove himself, to himself and others is what led to a fatal decision on the battlefield.
“He had every opportunity to stay behind in the lines if he wanted to,” Dr Nicholls said.
“He had nothing to prove to people or the world, but he internally always felt that he had to prove something.”
Healy continually pushed himself and in 1918 – charged a German machine gun by himself.
“His platoon thought so much of him and loved him so much that three soldiers went out through no man’s land to retrieve Healy, and were all cut down,” she said.
It’s Dr Nicholls' second book after she wrote about Joe Quinn, the first Australian to play major league baseball in America.
Hell and High Water is available at the Cootamundra Library and all good bookstores.