Australian Survivor: Champions vs Contenders - Meet Shane Gould

To read more about Shane Gould, see this blog entry

In this online article in Swimming World, Ms Gould told the author, Craig Lord that 

"She made sure she could cover all the basics, like lighting a fire with a flint; working out the kind of games she would be good at, the kind she would not. While some felt a need to win at every turn, Gould identified the things she was not the best at, did what was required not to fail but wasted no more energy than necessary in pursuit of what could not be won."

Anyone who has doubts about “how she did it” needs to read her autobiography, Tumble Turns! Talk about a story of resilience and the acquisition of the mental and physical skills needed to weave your way through a communal experience and emerge a champion once again! 

Max Connors - SeaChange

Like Andrea Camilleri's Sicilian detective, Salvo Montalbano, Max Connors is a swimmer. Like Salvo, he swims through his troubles.

In Series 2, episode 5, after his wife dies, Max can only seek solace in swimming. In fact it also brings him closer to his father, a former champion swimmer.

Max, played by actor William NcInnes, was the (second) heartthrob love interest in Australian TV series, Seachange, which ran for three series, 1998-2000. McInnes appeared in 24 episodes. The show also starred great Aussie acting icons, Sigrid Thornton, John Howard, David Wenham, Kerry Armstrong, Kate Atkinson, Jill Forster, Kevin Harrington, Georgina Naidu and others. 

Swimming in fiction: Andrea Camilleri's detective Salvo Montalbano

Andrea Camilleri’s Sicilian detective, Salvo Montalbano often works out his existential angst by having a long swim off the beach his gorgeous little beach house, situated just outside the fictional town of Vigità.

Vigità is based on Camilleri’s home town, Porto Empedocle in the province of Agrigento. The TV series is filmed mainly in and around Ragusa.

I’m a dedicated Montalbano fan, both books and TV. I love to know what decided Camilleri to make his hero a swimmer. Does Camilleri like swimming himself?

In Montalbano’s seventh outing, Rounding The Mark, Montalbano’s swimming is an essential plot device such that it is while swimming the body is found….

“He began swimming in slow, broad strokes. The sea smelled harsh, stinging his nostrils like champagne, and he nearly got drunk on it. Montalbano kept swimming and swimming, his head finally free of all thought, happy to have turned into a kind of mechanical doll. He was jolted back to human reality when a cramp suddenly bit into his left calf. Cursing the saints, he flipped onto his back and did the dead man’s float. The pain was so sharp that it made him grit his teeth. Sooner or later it would pass. These damned cramps had become more frequent in the last two or three years. Signs of old age lurking round the corner? The current carried him lazily along. The pain was starting to abate, and this allowed him to take two armstrokes backwards. At the end of the second stroke, his hand struck something.

In a fraction of a second, Montalbano realized he’d struck a human foot. Somebody else was floating right beside him, and he hadn’t noticed.

“Excuse me,” he said hastily, flipping back onto his belly and looking over at the other.

The person beside him didn’t answer, however, because he wasn’t doing the dead man’s float. He was actually dead. And, to judge from the way he looked, he’d been so for quite a while.” (p 15)

Montalbano's television "house" and beach in Ragusa, Sicily. Looks like a fair few tourists manage to find their way there: