Olympic medalist Mitchell Watt, who claimed Australia’s first track and field medal in the men’s long jump, has rightfully defended both his performance and that of his Australian teammates in London, telling a press conference that they needed “to wake up.”
The 24 year old Queenslander acknowledged the pressures of shouldering gold medal expectations, saying “I was pretty aware there was a gold medal tag around my neck. I was asked by a journalist over there, the first thing he said was “that’s disappointing” and then asked why Australia seems to be not doing well. I said it’s questions like that that make it seem like we’re not doing well.
I think people need to start understanding that it is not easy to win an Olympic gold medal and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a silver medal.
The team is happy, I am happy, the coach is happy. I got thousands of messages back home that they are happy and the only people that aren’t happy are you guys. So you need to wake up.”
Preach, Mitchell, preach. Predictably, Mitchell’s views were met with applause by only one member of the Australian media contingent. At the time of writing, Australia currently sits in 24th place on the medal tally with one gold, twelve silver and seven bronze.
Here’s Mitchell doing what he does best, no two ways about it.
Via ABC
Photo by Mike Hewitt, Michael Steele and Stu Foster for Getty Images Sport
