Paralympics: Cheers of support for athletes

By CHRIS RATTUE

Louise Sauvage is a household name in Australia, and John MacLean is fast becoming one.

At Stadium Australia, in front of nearly 100,000 people, they had vastly different Olympic fortunes.

Sauvage powered away from her opponents to win a second consecutive gold medal. MacLean, though, tipped over. Yes, tipped over.

The sport is paralympics, and it is another example of how thoroughly and seriously Australia takes its sport.

Sauvage and MacLean's stories are as different as the fortune and misfortune they struck on the track.

But the common thread is that they are full-time, dedicated athletes who - and particularly in Sauvage's case - are just about as recognisable as any other sports person in Australia (with a few notable exceptions, such as Cathy Freeman).

Sauvage was a fairly comfortable winner over Wakako Tsuchida from Japan and Ariadne Hernandez from Mexico in the 800m, which takes less than two minutes to race.

The 27-year-old Sauvage was born with her disability, learned to swim at the age of three, and started competing in a chair at age eight.

"I was born with something you could say is similar to spina bifida. I don't know how or why," she says, with a weary look that suggests she has answered the question too often.

The so-called "exhibition" events first appeared at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. At Atlanta, Sauvage also won the 800m gold.

But there was a difference. At Atlanta, the paralympians were presented with the same medals as the able-bodied athletes although the achievements did not count on the medal tally.

As Sauvage clutches her medal shortly after it was presented to her by IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch at Stadium Australia, she realises it is different this time.

"The race was an unbelievable experience," she says.

"It was the biggest and most biased crowd I've raced in front of.

"It was the most amazing feeling. The crowd really lifted me for the last 150m. It felt like a rush of air underneath you.

"People who have not seen this sport before are probably not aware just how fast the athletes can move.

"The biggest misconception I strike is that people think you race in your everyday chair.

"People don't understand the effort and training involved."

For a start, the racing chairs, which have got a touch of the land yacht look to them, cost up to $10,000.

Sauvage is a full-time athlete, trains six days a week, is sponsored by such giants as the National Bank and Qantas, and is also involved with the Australian and New South Wales institutes of sport.

She has won the wheelchair Boston marathon, and seven gold medals at the Barcelona and Atlanta Paralympics.

At the Sydney paralympics, she will race the 800m, 1500m, 5000m and marathon.

Like Sauvage, MacLean is given a rating of a lower disability.

His story is very different though. A reserve grade rugby league player with Penrith, he was struck by a truck while cycling in 1988.

In 1995, he was the first wheelchair athlete to complete the Hawaiian Ironman, and repeated the effort the next year.

But when the triathlon organisers tried to give him medals, MacLean refused to accept because he had not finished within the required time. The following year he made amends and accepted his medal with honour intact.

In 1998, MacLean became the first para-athlete to swim the English Channel, completing the job just 10 days after failing with his first attempt.

When he started taking paralympics seriously 18 months ago, he had to lose 20kg of blubber he had built up for protection in the channel swim.

The Sydney Olympics were not a good experience for him. Men's wheelchair racing is more aggressive than women's, which leads to a few spills, and MacLean tipped out on the final lap of the 1500m race won by Saul Mendoza of Mexico.

After his win, Mendoza made a special point of saying: "I would like to thank the IOC for making us part of this dream and giving us the opportunity to show the world what disabled athletes can do. I hope they will still support us."

But Sauvage had bad news for him. "I don't believe they will have the exhibition events at the next Olympics. I've heard it's already been decided. It's a bit of a shame. The paralympics are most important, but this a highlight for us and I think it is great for the crowd."