A Hometown Hero's Heartbreak

The Games in Sydney was full of memorable moments for Australia, like Cathy Freeman's 400m Gold, and Ian Thorpe's dominance in the pool. But for one athlete, it's a Games they'd rather forget. Jane Saville was on the brink of a historic result for her country, competing in front of a home town crowd, when everything changed in an instant. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Walking. Most of us have been doing it since before
we could use syllables one foot, then the other foot.
But if you're thinking, oh yeah, walking, that's easy, Jane
Savile would like a word. Hey, welcome to the ballroom.

(00:31):
I'm Tony Armstrong and this is the show that celebrates
the winners, losers and the weird stuff between. Being an

(00:55):
Aussie athlete at the Sydney Olympics was a big deal.
I mean, being an olymp in any games is a
big deal, but that green and gold home crowd was
something pretty special. Jane Saville was already an Olympium She
debuted in the women's ten kilometer walk in Atlanta in

(01:16):
nineteen ninety six. She didn't place that year, but Sydney
two thousand looked very promising. Indeed, the women's walk had
been newly increased from ten to twenty k's, and Jane
was known for being a legender distance. She loved to
walk a long, long way. In the Olympics, it's called racewalking, which,

(01:44):
as the name suggests, is when you walk, but as
a race and as its competitors know, racewalking, unlike every
day walking, has rules, only two of them, but they're
taken very very seriously. Number one, race walkers must have

(02:05):
foot to ground contact at all times. Nobody is allowed
to get airborne. Everyone knows that rule. And number two,
the supporting leg must quote straightened from the point of
contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body
passes directly over it. In Layman's terms, you must have

(02:25):
a straight knee when you hit the ground. Remember that one.
So Sydney, the day was hot. Fifty seven women started
with China's world champion Hongley Yu as the favorite. She
led the pack for the first fifteen kilometers, at which

(02:47):
point she was disqualified. That left our Jane in second place.
After an hour and twenty four minutes of walking, she
approached the final stretch almost shouldered to shoulder with Elizabeta
Parole who had won silver in Atlanta. They powered down
the burning bitchermen as onlookers cheered. Then a red card,

(03:11):
But who's In a flash, Elizabeta was out. Jane now
led on her own. She'd already received two warnings herself.
One more would mean disqualification. The finish line inside the
Olympic Stadium loomed. It was a capacity and the roar

(03:34):
from the crowd was deafening. Here came Australia's hope for
its first women's Olympic walking medal. Jane was a good
distance ahead of the next competitor from China. With three
hundred meters to go, her gold medal looked almost certain.
She walked to the stadium track one foot heel down,

(03:57):
the other foot toe down, fast, confident she could see
the crowd at the top of the grandstand as they cheered.
There's no third umpire in this sport. All decisions are
made by human judges waiting around the course with their

(04:17):
beady eyes peeled for rule breakers. The judge on the
last leg at Sydney two thousand was a guy named
Lamberto Vacci, an Italian. Almost camouflaged into the track in
his tan pants and wide brimmed hat. He may have
seemed unthreatening, but he caught something your everyday walker might
have missed. Jane's feet were maintaining contact with the ground.

(04:42):
That's rule one covered, but her legs weren't straight. In
the final moments of the twenty kilometer race, with only
meters between her and a gold medal, Jane had hit
the ground with her knee bent another red card, she
was disqualified. Australian fans were outraged on her behalf disqualified

(05:07):
on home turf, a proper modern day travesty. Jane broke
down in front of cameras, famously choking out and in
the moment response she later regretted, it's probably best I
don't repeat it here. While Sydney may have been a bust,
Jane Saville returned to the Olympics in Athens in two

(05:28):
thousand and four. She walked her heart out and it
was there four years on that she succeeded in winning
Australia's first women's walking medal, a bronze. Jane Saville is
an Olympic medal winning walker. She's experienced the highs and
the lows, but her feet have always remained grounded. You've

(06:10):
been listening to an iHeart production the poolroom with me,
Tony Armstrong. Catch you next time.