THE physical torment which an Olympian quest frequently inflicts can quickly be soothed with a good old-fashioned treatment of rest and recovery. To heal the mental scars, there is no single prescription.
“It left a wound in me for a wee while,” Ross Murdoch reflects of the disappointment he felt in coming up short of making a final in Rio. “There was quite a bit of damage.”
It required both time and perspective to fully recover. To grieve but also to learn, and then move on. The world championships in Budapest in July offer a golden opportunity to advance upon the individual bronze he earned in Kazan in 2015 but, first, next month’s trials in Sheffield must be successfully negotiated. Yet after winning the 100 metres breaststroke at the Edinburgh International meeting last night, the Scot senses his mojo has been restored.
A few tweaks have been undertaken to find a new gear. His university studies in Stirling, for now, have been placed on hold. In the pool though, much is as before.
“You’re just up and down that black line every day,” he said. “The big thing is I’m enjoying things. I had a bit of time out after the summer. That was a long four years leading into Rio and it’s going to be a long four years leading up to Tokyo, especially now I’m getting a bit older. I’m still only 23. I’m still young. But I’m not the young whippersnapper I was. So I needed to refocus my mind for another four years.”
The trials will be no aquatic amble. Adam Peaty, the golden boy of Rio, has yet to declare his full range of intentions but he will once again be a thorn in Murdoch’s side. Although Craig Benson was sixth behind his training partner here, he has signalled his intent to carry on despite losing Lottery funding. Others, surely, will soon emerge on the long road to Japan in 2020.
“It’s going to get harder,” Murdoch reflects. “But you don’t want to be missing out on the first championships after an Olympics. You want to start your cycle off well.
“But that was two season’s bests out of two at this meeting so that’s good. It’s all about sharpening up for trials now and practicing my racecraft. I just keep getting faster. I’ve had BUCS, Indianapolis and now this and I’ve got faster through each meet which bodes well for trials.”
Hannah Miley is another in the post-therapy phase, the pain of missing bronze in Rio by tiny fractions of a second understandably taking several months to relieve. Yet here she was again yesterday, victorious in a 400m individual medley, enthused about the future, motivated to go above and beyond.
At 27, she has been invigorated by a move to the University of Aberdeen where her father Patrick is now a full-time head coach, a move that has reconfigured the dad-daughter relationship to the benefit of both. Continuing to swim, rather than taking the safe option of retirement, has been a definite boon.
“Everyone goes through things differently after the Olympics,” Miley said. “A lot of people go through the post-Games blues whether they’ve been successful or not. if you’ve done well, you can go ‘now what?’ You’ve achieved what you wanted to achieve.
“And if you didn’t get what you want, you can ask: ‘what am I doing this for? why go through all that again?’ You go through self-reflection. Some people choose to get back in the water. Some are kind of told to. For me, getting back in kind of saved me because after Rio I was heartbroken.”
Olympian Camilla Hattersley was third behind Miley while elsewhere, Kathleen Dawson won the 50m backstroke in a Scottish record of 28.12 secs, Lucy Hope took top spot in the 200m freestyle but double Rio silver medallist Duncan Scott was beaten into fifth in the 200m butterfly. “But the preparations are looking good,” the 19-year-old said. “A lot can happen in seven weeks but not much can happen also. I’m in quite good shape.”
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