The infamous cardboard beds, eerie welcomes at Tokyo Airport, black sand and creating your own atmosphere in crowd-less venues – no topics were off-limits when Mack Horton, Rebecca Henderson, Brooke Stratton and Alexander Graham joined Alister Nicholson in “Tales From Tokyo”.
The webinar, presented by MCC and community partners, the Sports Excellence Scholarship (SESF), shone a light on the stories behind the most unique Olympic Games in history, as told by the four athletes.The webinar is now available on-demand for all members to watch, as the chat takes an hour’s deep-dive into the quirks and achievements of the Tokyo Games.
Former Olympic champion, SESF ambassador and MCC mentor Mack Horton said the Australian team took inspiration in the pool, from their own teammates creating an atmosphere in the stands.
“It just goes without saying in the Dolphins team, if you’re not racing…you’re in the stands supporting your teammates,” Horton said.
“So as people started to wrap up earlier in the week, the crowd in the stands builds and builds. I drew parallels to an APS Schools swimming Championships, because every nation was going through the same thing; they’re crowds were getting bigger and bigger, and more rowdy as the week went on.”
Fellow Dolphins Swim Team teammate and MCC member, Alexander Graham – who took home two Bronze medals at Tokyo in the Men’s 4x100m and 4x200 Freestyle Relay events – said the Olympic team took stock from some of the memorable performances in the pool from the likes of Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown.
“We’ve been working on the culture for the last couple of years and obviously we had a lot of success in 2019 at the World Champs and that kind of rolled through (to Tokyo 2020),” Graham said.
“I think the tightness of the team and being able to see your teammates perform, and have amazing performances like those girls (Titmus and McKeown) did, it definitely has the ability to lift the team.”
The SESF’s first alumni to reach the Olympic Games, as well as recently signing on as an ambassador and mentor, race walker Bec Henderson said she took inspiration from her event on the streets of Saporo – one of the few events that permitted the local Japanese residents to watch the Games in person.
“In terms of the race, they (the Japanese crowd) were cheering for the whole hour and a half we were walking for, and probably longer before and after,” Henderson said.
“That was absolutely fantastic to have the crowd there cheering for us, it was definitely the biggest crowd I’d experienced in a race.
“It was just awesome and so great that the Japanese people were able to come out and experience the Olympics that they might not have been able to experience.
Long jumper and SESF ambassador Brooke Stratton’s journey to Tokyo 2020 saw her battle Hashimoto's disease, coeliac disease and the general interruptions athletes have had to deal with during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A seventh place finish in the Final burns strong as her fondest memory of the Games.
“It probably was jumping 6.83m in the long jump Final, and just not really expecting that distance (that was my favourite memory),” Stratton said.
“Just looking over at my Dad, my coach, in the crowd and seeing the pure joy on his face, it was such a special moment.
“I had a pretty rough lead-in, but I guess that just proved to me that no matter how rough your lead-in is to a major Championships, you can do what you don’t think you’re capable of.”
Click the video above to watch the full episode, or view it here.