No security but certainly no shortage of spirit

ON ATHLETICS:For the Olympics, there is often no difference between the bravery of those who make it and that of those who don't, writes Ian O'Riordan.

HUNTER S THOMPSON would have turned 71 yesterday, had he not shot himself in the head on a wintry evening in Colorado three years ago. For someone who had championed the words of the poet Dylan Thomas - rage, rage, against the dying of the light - and never once lost his youthful spirit it was a sad and lonesome end.

Thompson always identified with the outsider, the underdog, the rebel, initially in a literary sense, then across his bizarre range of interests from the Hell's Angels to Warren Zevon. What set Thompson on this path was evident in a piece he submitted to his school magazine, The Spectator, aged just 17.

"Security . . . what does this word mean in relation to life as we know it today? Let us visualise the secure man; in general, he has pushed ambition and initiative aside and settled down, so to speak, in a boring but safe and comfortable rut for the rest of his life. His future is but an extension of his present, and he accepts it as such with a complacent shrug of his shoulders.

"What does he think when he sees his youthful dreams of adventure, accomplishment, travel and romance buried under the cloak of conformity? Where would the world be if all men had sought security and not taken risks or gambled with their lives on the chance that, if they won, life would be different or richer?"

Thompson would have identified with any athlete that aspired towards Olympic glory, in whatever form, for whom such security is the first thing to go out the window. (Actually, he once did, and in The Great Shark Hunt, describes Olympic skier Jean-Claude Killy as having "been there - to that rare high place where only the snow leopards live.")

No athlete has ever made the Olympics without taking a major risk, some incalculable gamble, and for the select few that see their venture pay off, there are countless others that don't. For the 13 Irish athletes headed to Beijing the dream is now being realised. But for those left behind, at least some of them, the dream is not yet over.

This time last year, David Campbell and Thomas Chamney lined up for the 800 metres at the National Championships in Santry knowing only the winner would go to the World Championships.

Both athletes had the B standard (which Athletics Ireland still recognises) but only one was entitled to compete. Campbell won and got to go; Chamney went back to the drawing board.

Beijing remained the ultimate goal for both athletes. Last summer, Campbell ran 1:46.05, and the A standard for Beijing is 1:46.00. Chamney ran 1:46.46. With a little natural progression and a little luck then possibly they could both make it this time.

At the start of the year, Campbell went to Australia to train under Nic Bideau. Money was tight and it's a long way from home but Campbell never saw it as a sacrifice. Chamney initially went to train in Spain, realised that wasn't working out, so then went to Florida. Security was never theirs, but they lived for the dream rather than existed.

In February, Campbell ran his first sub-four-minute mile. So far so good, yet shortly afterwards he felt a dull ache in his left shin. He went for an MRI scan but nothing showed up. After resuming his 100-mile-a-week training, he found the ache worsening, so he went for a bone scan. He was diagnosed with a stress fracture and told to rest for 10 weeks.

Chamney trained in Florida throughout the spring, yet struggled in his early races - couldn't even break 1:47. The chance of qualifying for Beijing was fast disappearing when they both went to Lignano in Italy last Sunday. Chamney ran a season's best of 1:46.66, with Campbell a few strides back in 1:47.66.

Close never got anyone to the Olympics.

The final cut-off date for Beijing qualification is Monday, and in reality, it's not going to happen for them. Campbell runs the 800 metres at this weekend's National Championships but it's highly unlikely he'll run under 1:46. Chamney has lined up one last attempt in Belgium tomorrow and the odds look slim.

Campbell is 26, and most people in his position would be tempted to put the Olympic dream to bed. Not so with him: "Missing 10 weeks running in the spring was a massive setback. It takes another six weeks after that to get back into proper training, and full fitness. But I'm not using that as an excuse. I had the time. I had to try and make it back, but obviously now, I've just run out of time.

"But I don't want to come across here as moaning. Quite the opposite. I still have plans to run fast before the end of the season, faster than I've ever run before. But as far as the Olympics are concerned, London in 2012 is definitely still a goal.

"I've always wanted to be an Olympian, and that's still my main goal as an athlete. It's been a frustrating year, but there are a lot of other things I want to do in the sport. The European Championships in two years, the World Championships next year. But definitely, the Olympics are the pinnacle of the sport. I just have to put the head down again and hope it comes together in four years' time.

"There were times there during the injury, when I'd be in the gym doing weights or in the pool, and I'd be wondering to myself what I was doing this for. It's hard. But I know when I'm running well and running fast there is no greater feeling in the world. I can't give that up knowing I haven't reached my potential. I don't want to be sitting on a barstool in 30 years' time looking back on this time of my life, and thinking, 'if I'd just kept the head down for another few years.' I've come too far to stop now."

It would be easy for Campbell, or Chamney, to start a campaign for B standards to be considered for Beijing, as they were for some of Ireland's developing swimmers.

There are several others with B standards: Deirdre Byrne twice improved her best for 1,500 metres in the past week, running 4:09.43 (the A standard is 4:08.00); Una English this week ran 9:51.54 for the 3,000-metre steeplechase (the A standard is 9:46.00); Michelle Carey has a season's best of 56.19 in the 400m hurdles (the A standard is 55.60).

"I knew at the start of the year I had to run an A standard, and I'm happy enough with that," says Campbell. "But I won't knock the swimmers or anyone else going. I just put on my shoes every morning and go out for a run, and that's all I can do. I have to set other goals to keep myself interested and motivated, and angry, and hungry, to keep running fast."

Are these athletes better or worse off for their experience? No doubt some of their friends and relations and other bystanders are saying it's time they settled down into some security of existence - the exact life Thompson had no use for: "It is from bystanders (who are in the vast majority) that we receive the propaganda that life is drudgery, that the ambitions of youth must be laid aside for a life which is but a painful wait for death. These are the men who dream at night of what could have been, but who wake at dawn to take their places at the now-familiar rut and to merely exist through another day."

Because when it comes to the Olympics, there is often no difference at all between the courage and bravery of those that make it and the courage and bravery of those that don't.