035 - We Are Not All Olympians - Andrew Mewing (Part 1)

As we soak up all the colour and thrills from the Rio Olympics, it’s worth spending a moment to consider that every athlete that flashes across our screens represents scores of would-be-Olympians who didn’t quite make it. Those who pursued their Olympic dream and failed. They each have a story to tell. My guest in this episode of the podcast is Andrew Mewing who has one cracking yarn to share about his path in swimming that took him to every major international meet - except for the Olympic Games. A medalist at multiple World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, Andrew fell agonisingly short of his Olympic dream on three seperate occasions and at one point he found himself in the court of arbitration challenging Swimming Australia over his non-selection for the 2008 Beijing Games. But this is not a story of doom and gloom. Andrew is impressive in the way he is able to constructively reflect on his career in the pool and process what many would see as heartbreak. In this conversation he talks us through, blow for the blow, the physical torture of a high-stakes 200m freestyle final. He tells us what it’s like to get caught in the wash of a determined Ian Thorpe. He tells us of the physical toll of backing up to swim through heats, semi finals and finals in multiple events over consecutive days. And he talks us through how he managed to juggle studying two degrees while training full time and traveling the world to compete. This is an incredible insider’s story of everything is takes to strive, to succeed, to fail and then to pick yourself up and do it all again.