These are testing times for the old Olympic ideals. Imagine Baron de Coubertin being told certain nations were banned from taking part because winning was all that mattered. Or that some competitors couldn’t be bothered about the triumph and the struggle.
Would Coubertin have the spirit for it any more?
Indeed, it is becoming increasingly hard to find anything positive about the journey towards Rio – unless, of course, it’s a positive drugs test. Throw in some of the lame excuses being offered by Rory McIlroy and company for not wanting to be anywhere near Rio and suddenly it seems as if no one really cares any more.
If just one of those golfers had mentioned the fact there was no prize money in Rio, they might have actually got a little more sympathy: amateurism was one of the first Olympic ideals to be lost and it is not unreasonable for highly paid professionals to see no value in a gold medal. Using the Zika virus as the reason for not wanting to chase it is irresponsible.
All of which made sitting down with Bryan Keane this week such a breath of fresh air. He is a couple of months shy of his 36th birthday, and for Keane, the journey to Rio has been a lifelong one, chased not just on Olympic ideals but also on the dream of reaching the absolute pinnacle of sport. He is, in no small way, the perfect antidote to any Olympic cynicism.
He also does it almost completely anonymously, because if you haven’t heard of Keane, Ireland’s only qualifier for the men’s Olympic triathlon, you’re hardly alone.
Pinnacle of sport
Keane was in Dublin this week for the last stop-off before completing that journey to Rio (which will include a few more races in Europe and then the final block of training in the US) – and it has only taken him the best part of 24 years.
That he will be the oldest competitor in the men’s triathlon is fitting as no one will have tried harder or come further to get there. That Olympic dream, he says, was his for as long as he can remember.
He reckons he began chasing it at the age of 12, first in swimming, then in running and later in cycling – before realising he was pretty well-suited to combine all three in the triathlon.
“I remember as a young kid, growing up in Cork, watching the Olympics, and thinking this was the pinnacle of sport,” he tells me.
“And I still believe that. For me it was always about how I could actually achieve it, because it has been something I’ve dreamed of my whole life. So now, 24 years later, to have achieved that goal, to be able to represent my country, is something I’m very, very proud of.”
Top triathletes
Keane doesn’t say these words lightly. In qualifying for Rio he feels he is representing all the people who have supported him along the way – family and friends – and they are many. It was never easy either: only the top 55 triathletes in the world – men and women – are invited to Rio, and Keane was hovering on the verge of that throughout the two-year qualifying window before sealing his place in last month’s final qualifying race in Yokohama.
Another important part of his journey is the fact that to fully appreciate what it means to qualify for the Olympics, he first needed to appreciate what it meant not to.
In September 2010, just two years before the London Olympics, Keane was already well positioned to qualify. But while riding his time-trial bike near his home in Cork at some 40km/h, he was hit, side-on by a car travelling at a similar speed.
He shattered his right kneecap, spent 10 weeks in a leg brace and, despite the boldest of efforts to get back in time for London, he simply ran out of water and road. In the end he needed to take a nine-month break in order to learn to run all over again.
Not that he is going to Rio to simply take part. His decision to keep journeying on towards Rio was reinforced in 2013 at Ishigaki in Japan when Keane became the first Irishman to make the podium at the Triathlon World Cup (finishing second).
He also describes himself as a bit of a “sole trader”, which he has to be, because even though he’s part of Triathlon Ireland’s professional set-up, he reckons 2016 will be a good financial year if he breaks even.
Competitive spirit
Nor does Keane ever question the effort, which includes 30 hours of basic training a week, typically covering 25km- 30km in the swimming pool, 300km- 350km on the bike and 80km-90km running. Including gym sessions, he is training three or four times a day, every day, seven days a week.
In some ways though the triathlon was founded on the Olympic motto, “Citius, Altius, Fortius”, as some time in the 1970s, the long distance swimmers, cyclists and runners in Hawaii agreed to combine their events to help settle, once and for all, which of them were truly the fittest. (No prizes for guessing who won).
Now, the event is suitably labelled “Olympic” distance (1.5km swim, 40km cycle, 10km run), because in the triathlon, at that distance, Rio will be the absolute pinnacle of the sport. As long as there are competitive spirits such as Keane’s, that will always be an Olympic ideal worth chasing.
