I’d come a long way since Atlanta, but I was still looking for inspiration all the time. Fortunately, there was no shortage of it in Sydney. The deeds of Kieren Perkins, Cathy Freeman, Susie O’Neill and Ian Thorpe featured prominently. I watched the swimming on a night when we got...

We played our first game of the Sydney Olympic Beach Volleyball tournament the day after a stirring opening ceremony. Already we were surrounded by inspiration: five-time Olympian Andrew Gaze carrying the flag; Rachelle Hawkes reading the oath; the moving final lap that celebrated our...

One week out from the Games, Steve, Phil, Kerri and I had a discussion about our motivation. Things didn’t feel right. It’s hard to explain, but we were so narrowly focussed on winning that we seemed to lack passion; we forgot to smell the roses. After all, we were in our home country...

The lead-up to Sydney certainly wasn’t all smooth sailing. On 4 September I had a shocking time at practice. The sun was in the wrong place. The wind was swirling. I was getting frustrated and angry, and I was worried about my sore right knee. My legs felt sluggish. I knew I was being drawn...

I mentioned in another blog the importance of making space in your life for the things you want. On 20 August 2000, the mental space I had created came together with the real, physical space in which we were going to win the gold medal, and I took advantage of the experience to inspire me.

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I have avoided writing because I have been so overwhelmed with everything since returning home from the London Olympics in the middle of August!

I’ve been reflecting on:

• 5 Olympics
• Welcome home parade
• No wins on the board…Shoulda, woulda, coulda. We were so close.
• Retiring from the...

Before embarking on our last world tour before the Sydney Olympics, we set three major goals.

1. To win an event, to get that feeling of winning so that, as with the firewalk, we could tap back into that feeling: we would have a reference for the experience of winning.
2. To beat every team we may...

I mentioned earlier that I had decided to do everything Kurek asked. But there were times when I definitely thought he was stretching the friendship!

How many tasks have you stood in front of, in reality or in your mind’s eye, and thought they were impossible goals, insurmountable obstacles...

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” Michael Jordan

I want to start this chapter with a parable that is particularly meaningful to me. A group of travelers in the desert came across Moses and thought their luck had changed. They raced over to him and begged...

Change is a funny thing. There’s a whole industry built around implementing change, motivating people for change, getting people excited about it. But a lot of efforts at change fail. People go along to seminars, and get incredible emotional ‘highs’ for a weekend. They come to...