Green and gold for Australia

Polyanthus wearing the Australian national colours.

We watched the last day of the Olympics swimming. Emma McKeon won two more gold medals, bringing her total gold medals at these games to four. She has won eleven Olympic medals in total, more than any other Australian athlete. The Australian women also won gold in the four x 100m medley relay, with the great Cate Campbell as anchor.

The swimming has really lifted our spirits and I think the spirits of many Australians. It’s not only that the swimmers have performed so well, winning nine gold medals and twenty medals in total. It’s also that, with all the Covid restrictions, the focus has been almost entirely on the athletes, and their performance, and we have been able to see what remarkably fine people they are. Strange as it seems, in some ways these games are more like what the Olympics ought to be.