Nays have it: success is all in the genes
(reposted from the Sydney Morning Herald)AS IF gold medal bragging rights over friend and training partner Stephanie Rice and a place on the world championship team were not reward enough for winning the 200 metres freestyle on the opening night of the Australian championships, there was another reason victory was so special for Meagan Nay.
The 20-year-old, an Olympic finalist in the 200m backstroke eight months ago, had flipped onto her stomach and taken up the 200m free. The event was now hers. Almost three decades ago, it was her dad's, too.
Robbie Nay was Meagen's father. As a 15-year-old, he swam the event at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. Two years later, he won a relay gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, and was just 0.01 of a second behind Australian sprint icon Mike Wenden to narrowly miss the bronze medal in the 200m freestyle final.
Robbie's story turned sour shortly after. He got hooked on heroin and, in 1978, pleaded guilty to possessing and using the drug. Then aged 22, he entered rehab, battled back, and amazingly, in 1980, beat surf lifesaving legend Grant Kenny at the Queensland titles.
Meagen was born eight years later, but then, when she was just four, in November 1992, her father was killed in a car accident. Meagen said her father would have been proud to see her go to the Olympics last year, and also for her success in "his race" last week.
Her winning time of one minute, 57.90 seconds was just 0.06s slower than her father's time in Christchurch.
"Yeah, I think it was really special winning that event," she said. "I kind of inherited good genes in the 200m freestyle, I think. Apart from making the team and things like that, it meant a lot to me as a person. It was a very special moment."
While she broke on to the Australian team for Beijing on her back, freestyle is not a radical change. Nay was supposed to swim freestyle at the Olympic trials last year, but pinched a nerve in her shoulder in the lead-up and could only manage one event, the 200m backstroke.
"I had the time of my life over in Beijing, but it was so scary, too. It was my first major Australian team so everything was a bit daunting, especially the final of the 200m backstroke [she finished seventh], but, at the same time, I learnt a lot just in that one swim, and I took away a lot of things I have since been working on in training."
Nay put those lessons into practice at the trials, qualifying for swims in the 200m freestyle, 200m backstroke and the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays.
"I've been concentrating on freestyle a little bit more in training with my coach, Michael Bohl, especially after the Olympics. It's something I've always liked doing in training, and it's just picked up to the next level here, and hopefully in Rome I can step it up again."
Nay and her teammates will be back in the water tonight when they contest the annual Skins event at Sydney Olympic Park.
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