Philippe Rizzo has just won Australia’s first ever world gymnastics gold medal. Apart from celebrating the success of Australians in genuine worldwide sports (I think gymnastics counts, even though you have to be quite well-off to do it, so you don’t exactly get many African countries), I have to record this for personal reasons.
Gymnastics was the sport I did as a teenager (not particularly well, but I enjoyed it), and I occasionally did school holiday camps. I have vivid memories of one school holidays, hanging out in the Rizzo family gym (grandly called the Australian Gymnastics Academy), with Philippe using the entire gym, particularly the foam pit, as his personal playground. He was two years old at the time. He’s now the undisputed veteran of the Australian team, which makes me feel very old.
I was in gymnastics, too — from age 6 to age 14. I never knew anyone who became famous at it, though : )