Brand New Heavies

At the athletics selection trials at the Olympic stadium in mid-August, Louise Currey’s medal hopes seemed to disappear before our eyes. As she made her approach for her third throw, she felt her right leg give a bit. Then, off balance, her left knee crumpled beneath her like a strand of cooked spaghetti hitting the plate. Yet a couple of days later she announced her determination to compete in Sydney. She would need a knee reconstruction after the games, the Atlanta silver medallist said, but nothing would stop her from competing. "I’m not going to miss this, not unless I get hit by a bus," she said then. Twelve days later, Currey again fronted the media.

This time her knee was in a brace, but her attitude had not changed. The 31-year-old Wollongong police officer said she would endure a month of pain now if it meant being able to throw in Sydney. The odds are against her, but, if all it takes is mental strength, Currey is already at the end of the run-up ready to throw.

Inspirational stories seem to go hand-in-hand with the strength events. Remember the brash young heavyweight then named Cassius Clay who won the gold medal in the light-heavyweight event in 1960. The only boxer in history to win the title on three separate occasions. Inspiration? It drips off Muhammad Ali.

Michael Bennett (USA)
Age: 29 years
Event: Boxing (heavyweight)
Best performance: World Championship title

Like Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, US heavyweight Michael Bennett has spent time behind bars for armed robbery. Carter went into gaol a boxer, and it cost him his career. Bennett turned to boxing in prison, part of a determined drive to redeem himself through education and work for the mistake he had made. He fought in prison tournaments and, a year after his release, became amateur heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He continued training under coach George Hernandez, won his way to the World Championships, then won the heavyweight title in a controversial decision over Felix Savon of Cuba. They could meet again in Sydney where Savon, one of the top boxers in the world of the 1990s with four World Championship medals, will be bidding for a third Olympic title.

Trine Hattestad (Norway)
Age: 34 years
Event: Javelin
Personal best: 69.48 m (‘00)

Since a new, differently-weighted javelin was adopted for women’s competition at the start of 1999, Trine Hattestad has set the standard. Last year she threw four world bests as new world standards were being established. This year she has thrown two world records. She has won two World Championship gold medals. But she comes to her fifth Olympics still looking for anything more valuable than the bronze medal she won in Atlanta.

Hattestad finished fifth in Los Angeles as a teen, did not qualify for the final in Seoul in 1988 and was fifth again in Barcelona in 1992. Sydney, surely, will be her last chance at an Olympic gold medal. She has not always been at her best under pressure, even in winning.

Alexander Karelin (Russia)
Age: 33 years
Event: Wrestling (heavyweight, Greco-Roman)
Best performance: Seven-time world champion

There are wrestlers, and then there is Alexander Karelin. The first Greco-Roman wrestler to win three Olympic gold medals, the Russian heavyweight is best known for the Karelin Lift - unless you count the story about him carrying his refrigerator to his eighth-floor apartment. He lifts his opponent off the ground and throws him over his head. It has helped him win seven straight World Championships, and he is expected to seek his fourth consecutive Olympic gold in Sydney. With 19 international titles, Karelin is the most successful wrestler ever. In addition to his Olympic and world honours, he has won a further nine European titles. He hasn’t lost since 1987 and has been international Greco-Roman wrestler of the year four times.

Andrei Chemerkin (Russia)
Age: 28 years
Event: Weightlifting
Best lift: 170 + kg

As he is the king of the super-heavyweights, Andrei Chemerkin can rightly claim the title of "The Strongest Man in the World". If he cannot, you tell him. Insiders tip that Chemerkin could tip the scales at over 180 kilos in Sydney. Like many other champions, his timing has been impeccable. It was not until Atlanta that he ruled the super-heavyweight roost. There he hoist a total of 457.5kg in weightlifting’s two disciplines - the snatch, and the clean and jerk. At the World Championships, he has never won the snatch. His goal is to outclass his famous predecessors (Vlasov, Zhabotinsky, Taranenko, Kurlovich, Pisarenko) and clean and jerk a weight no one has yet lifted. At present, the absolute record is Taranenko’s 266 kg clean and jerk. Chemerkin’s best is 262.5. Watch this space.

Thomas Dvorak (Czech Republic)
Age: 28 years
Event: Decathlon
Personal best: 8994 points (‘99)

Last year Tomas Dvorak came within six points of crossing the 9000-point barrier in the decathlon, supplanting American star Dan O’Brien, the 1996 Olympic champion, as world record holder. Daley Thompson, perhaps the greatest decathlete ever, brought the world record within reach of it, O’Brien got closer still, and now Dvorak stands on the brink of 9000+. As much as any athlete can relax in an event where there are 10 things that can go wrong, Dvorak can. He is well ahead of his competition. Last year he won all four decathlons in the iaaf multi-events challenge, each time his winning score was better than the second-best score in the world for the year. So the 28-year-old soldier from the Czech Republic can focus on his own performance, and perhaps we will see a landmark achieved in Sydney.

Mihaela Melinte (Romania)
Age: 25 years
Event: Hammer throw
Personal best: 76.07 m (‘99)

The women’s hammer throw will be contested for the first time at an Olympic Games in Sydney.

If the event is hardly established, the favourite certainly is. Mihaela Melinte of Romania has ruled the event for the past three years. Olga Kuzenkova of Russia beat Melinte at the 1997 European Cup, but the Romanian has not lost since, winning 34 competitions until the end of 1999. That includes eight world records and, more impressive, a near one in winning the gold medal at last year’s World Championships.

Melinte’s 75.20 metres was within 80 centimetres of her pending world record of 75.97 (she improved it to 76.07 by year’s end). Kuzenkova’s best heave has crept close to Melinte’s world record this year, heading the world list with a throw of 75.68 metres.

Melinte is within a metre though, at 74.80, and the two look set for a great battle in Sydney to see who will be the first women’s Olympic hammer throw champion.

Balazs Kiss (Hungary)
Age: 28 years
Event: Hammer throw
Personal best: 83 m (‘98)

Balazs Kiss was hardly the raging favourite for the hammer throw gold medal in Atlanta four years ago, but the Hungarian thrower was on virtual home ground. Compact and with a sound technique, Kiss will be back in Sydney with Hungarian teammates Tibor Gecsek and Zsolt Nemeth, fourth and second, respectively, in last year’s World Championships. Kiss has also trained in Australia, helping Australian national champion Stuart Rendell. This year, Rendell travelled to Europe as part of his pre-Olympic programme, and competed in a meeting in Zagreb. His 14th place didn’t seem that impressive, until you realise that this gathering in the Croatian city included 16 of the top 20 hammer throwers in the world.

Astrid Kumbernuss (Germany)
Age: 30 years
Event: Shotput
Personal best: 21.22 m (‘95)

Big, strong and rock-solid, Astrid Kumbernuss has ruled the shotput ring pretty well unchallenged for the last five years. The blonde German thrower was World Champion in 1995, 1997 and 1999 and Olympic Champion in Atlanta. Through 1995 and 1996, Kumbernuss was unbeaten in 51 straight competitions. She won the 1995 World Championships by a margin of one metre 18 centimetres, the largest ever margin of victory at world or Olympic level and an incredible percentage better than the next best in a competition where distances are around 20 metres. Kumbernuss suffered three early season losses last year, two to emerging teammate Nadine Kleinert, and one later in the year. She threw "only" 19.85 metres to win the gold medal and her margin of victory over Kleinert was a mere 24 centimetres.

Aki Parviainen (Finland)
Age: 26 years
Event: Javelin
Personal best: 93.09 m (‘99)

When he came from behind to win the World Championships gold medal in Seville last year (his winning throw came in the fifth of six rounds), Aki Parviainen became the first Finn to win world titles at both junior (in 1992) and senior level. He is the worthy heir to the great Finnish tradition of javelin.

His battle with Greek star Kostas Gatsioudis, world record holder Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic and his fellow Finns in this stylish event should be one of the field highlights of Sydney 2000.

Adam Nelson (USA)
Age: 25 years
Event: Shotput
Personal best: 22.12 m (‘00)

Nelson is not so much new to the shotput, as new to a single-minded focus on the event and a healthy body. A versatile sportsman, he played football and also wrestled at Dartmouth University. Relatively small for a top thrower, his tendency to push too hard led to a succession of injuries. It improved when he began working with Robert Weir, the English Commonwealth discus champion. In imperial terms, season 2000 has seen Nelson breach the 68, 69, 70, 71 and 72-feet marks. His win at the US trials - 22.12 m or 72 ft seven inches - established a new personal best and a new Olympic favourite.