Olympians don’t curtsey. That gesture of respect to royalty is still part of sport, though – the ladies’ singles finalists at Wimbledon must curtsey to the Royal Box.
There’s been a prominent champion or two who’s confessed that the curtsey was the most difficult and the most nerve-wracking part of the entire Wimbledon campaign.
But triple Olympic champion Stephanie Rice showed a mini-curtsey. Not on the way to the blocks, not on the way to the dais, not on the way to the Olympic Village.
But when she walked into the temporary Channel Seven studios in Beijing, with the latest of her three gold medals around her neck, it happened – completely unrehearsed.
As she walked through the front door, the 20-year-old was taken aback when a staff member called out to his colleagues to give her a warm welcome – and a long line of well-wishers suddenly appeared, applauding one of the most amazing performers for Australia since Shane Gould’s heroics as a teenager at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972.
That was when Rice took a split second to curtsey in gratitude. Not a real, drop-at-the-knees genuflection; it was more like a brief bob.
Turned out the interviewers had taken a straw poll of their colleagues. The blokes wanted to ask Rice about her ex-boyfriend, the women wanted to know about her green-and-gold earrings.
She laughed and confessed they were three-buck earrings, bought on a whim because they were national colours.
She said that the entire Olympic experience had been a huge eye-opener for her.
It was so different from the success she found at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, as an 18-year-old, when she came home with two gold medals and the weight of a nation’s expectation.
Her first Olympics. Three events. Three gold medals. Three world records.
And three-buck earrings.
