Mark Anthony Kerry ( August 4, 1959 , , New South Wales ) is an Australian freestyle and backstroke swimmer . 12-time Australian champion. Winner of three Olympic medals, including gold in the combined relay 4 × 100 meters at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow (one of the four participants of the ).
Mark Kerry | |
---|---|
Mark Anthony Kerry | |
personal information | |
Floor | |
Full name | Mark Anthony Kerry |
Birth name | |
Nicknames | "Aunty" |
A country | |
Specialization | |
Club | Indiana Husers (1976-1979) USK Troyans (1979-1980) |
Date of Birth | |
Place of Birth | |
Sports career | 1976-1984 |
Growth | 187 cm |
Weight | 85 kg |
At a young age, Kerry showed abilities in sports swimming. He was noticed by coach John Rigby, who transferred him to Queensland , where Mark continued to train and made his debut in the Australian Championship at the age of 16. Unexpectedly for everyone, he immediately won four gold medals in freestyle and on backstroke at a distance of 200 meters, as well as in relay races 4 × 200 meters freestyle and 4x100 complex . His performance in the national arena did not go unnoticed, and he received an invitation to the country's Olympic team. At the Games in Montreal, Mark reached the finals in the disciplines of and meters on his back and took seventh and eighth places, respectively. By his results, which Kerry himself was disappointed, he attracted the attention of an American coach who invited Mark to study and play for Indiana University . Kerry accepted the invitation, and during his studies at the university set several national records. However, shortly before Australian was expelled from the national and university teams, as he left the training camp without permission.
In 1980, Mark Kerry returned to Australia and again won the gold medal in the heats of 100 and 200 meters on his back. The swimmer ignored the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, for which he was under political pressure for some time.At the Games, Mark won his highest career award - a gold medal in the combined relay 4 × 100 meters (the first stage was swimming (on the back)), as well as a bronze medal at a distance of 200 meters on the back (but he did not reach the final at 100-meter in the same style). After the Olympics, the Australian briefly left the sport and returned to it only on the eve of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles , where he won the bronze medal in the combined relay 4 × 100 meters and became fifth in the . After these Games, Mark finally completed his sports career and moved to the United States , where he began to work on television. Upon returning to Australia, he founded and led the recruiting firm Dunhill Management, in which his brother also worked. In 2001, the Kerry brothers sold Dunhill for A $ 22.7 million and later established K2.
The early years
Mark Kerry was born in the small Australian town of Temora (New South Wales). My father was engaged in car sales. Mother worked as a swimming coach in her own sports school, in which Kerry began to engage in this sport. She, according to Mark, was very demanding in relation to the technique of swimming, and from her presentation Mark chose the style “on the back” [1] . From childhood, Kerry participated in many sports; In addition to swimming, he represented in tennis and athletics , and also participated in four state cross-country competitions. After the family moved to the coastal city of Wollongong, Kerry surfed . He loved the ocean very much [2] . In 1974, Kerry won the Cadet Malibu youth surfing tournament (in the Australian Championship), and in 1975 became the second in the Australian Open Surfing Championships [2] .
In 1971, at the age of 12, Mark first took part in state-level swimming competitions, and in 1974 he made his debut in the Australian Youth Championships (freestyle). Olympic medalist at the 1972 Summer Olympics who won the 400m freestyle race, also trained with Mark in Wollongong. The following year, Kerry moved to Brisbane ( Queensland ), where he began training under the guidance of coach John Rigby. At that time, he was near the 200th place in the world ranking of back swimmers [2] .
Debut at a serious level. 1976 Olympics
Kerry progressed rapidly and by November 1975 had improved his result at a distance of 200 meters on his back from 2.10 to 2.03 (the third result in the world ranking). Focusing on swimming, Mark quit surfing. In 1976, he made his debut in the national championship, where he won the 200-meter freestyle and backstroke with results of 1: 54.33 and 2: 03.58 respectively. At the same championship, Kerry won two relay races in the New South Wales team: 4 × 200 m freestyle and 4 × 100 m complex.
At the age of 16, Kerry passed the qualifying qualification for participation in the 1976 Olympics , held in the city of Montreal , and was declared at a distance of and on his back, , as well as two for relay races - 4 × 200 freestyle and 4x100 combined [2] . Kerry became the second in his qualification 200-meter freestyle with a score of 1: 54.86 [3] , but this was not enough to get into the finals [4] [5] . After this failure, Kerry was not declared for the 4 × 200 freestyle relay race, although he was the best swimmer in the national team according to the results achieved. As a result, Australia became the third in its race, 9th in the general qualification [6] and did not qualify for the final with a 1.88 second delay. Participant Peter Dawson went the distance 4 seconds slower than Kerry in the individual event, and if Mark were able to repeat his result in his place, Australia would qualify 5th [4] .
Kerry achieved greater success in swimming . He won the qualification race with a score of 57.99 seconds and went to the semifinals with the third result in the overall standings. In the semifinals, he became 7th with a result of 58.04 s, and in the final he also became 7th (57.94 s), beating only his friend and compatriot Mark Tonelli , and at the same time losing about two seconds to the American who won the swim John Neyber [1] [ 7] . In the qualification race of 200 meters in the same style, Kerry repeated his personal record, swimming the distance in 2: 03.58 and went from 4 places to the finals, where he showed only fifth time 2: 04.07 (fourth place went to Tonelli) with a lag of 2.72 seconds from bronze [ 8] . Kerry, along with Paul Jarvey , and Peter Coslan, took part in the combined relay 4 × 100 m and became the sixth in the qualification [9] . In the final race, Kerry, having completed his stage on the back for 57.94, brought the partners to fourth place, but they could not keep up with the leaders, and as a result, the Australians were 4 seconds from the medals [10] .
Kerry was disappointed with the results of his performances at the Olympics and felt that he had not fully revealed his potential due to the excitement and pressure of a sense of responsibility. However, he believed that the gained experience of competing with such swimmers as Neyber and Roland Mattes should play him a good service. In addition, Mark's appearances impressed leading American coach , who invited him to Indiana University after Kerry graduated from high school. [9]
In 1977, Kerry defended the title of Australia's best swimmer at a distance of 200 meters on his back, but this time he sailed 4 seconds slower than a year earlier. As part of the New South Wales team, Mark also won all 3 relay races, but in all these races he showed the worst time compared to the Olympic time. As a country champion, he was included in the Australian national team at the Coca Cola Meet tournament in London , but Kerry felt that he lost motivation after the Olympics. Upon his return from England, he decided to no longer participate in such competitions [9] .
Studying at an American College
In January 1978, Kerry entered the University of Indiana at the Department of Dramaturgy ( Eng. Theater, Drama, and Contemporary Dance Faculty ). In the same year, Mark was declared to participate in the Australian team at , held in Edmonton , Canada [9] . However, he and his teammates Mark Tonelli and were suspended from participating in these competitions for violating the sports regime and daily routine during training camps in Honolulu on US Independence Day [11] [12] [13] [14 ] ] . According to Tonelli, Kerry was late because he was dating a girl, while Tonelli and Dixon were drinking alcohol. For Australian television, Tonelli stated that the team did not take illicit drugs, but admitted that he smoked marijuana that was not banned in Hawaii [15] . Thousands of fans from Australia, including future Prime Minister Robert Hawke , signed a petition requesting rehabilitation for the athletes, but it was rejected [16] .
After the incident, Kerry returned to Indiana and continued his studies. In 1979, he participated in in Fort Lauderdale , where he set new records in Australia at distances of 100 and 200 meters on the back with results of 56.50 and 2: 02.61, respectively. He became dissatisfied with the work of his coach Doc Consilman, who, according to his feelings, focused more on business than on sports. Soon, Mark transferred to the University of Southern California , where he trained under the guidance of mentor John Naber [9] . Introducing his new university, Kerry won the gold medal at the 1979 Universiade at a distance of [17]
1980 Summer Olympics
In 1980, Kerry returned to Australia to participate in the national championship, where he won two distances “on the back” (100 and 200 meters), but at the same time showed more time than the national records he had set earlier. He was also the best in the 4 × 100 Relay combined and freestyle with the New South Wales team. These achievements allowed Mark to take part in the second Olympic Games for him, which this time were to be held in Moscow [18] . However, the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan initiated a boycott of the Olympics from most of the Western countries by the United States, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser , who actively sponsored the Australian Olympic Committee , began to put pressure on the athletes to force them to refuse to participate in the Games. Kerry's partner in the national team, Tonelli, realized that only athletes would suffer from the boycott, while trade relations between the countries remained strong, and became the leader of Australian athletes in the struggle for the right to go to the Olympic Games [11] [19] . Kerry fully supported Tonelli, despite the fact that a number of swimmers supported the boycott. He even received offers from Australian officials to boycott the Games in exchange for financial compensation. Mark said [18] :
I felt a great determination to go to Moscow .... If it were a total boycott, there would be no questions, but trade still continues. This is very unpleasant. Why should athletes suffer?
Original textI felt the biggest statement we could make was to go to Moscow and show the world. If there was a total boycott, fine, but trade was still going on. It was disgusting. Why should the athletes be made to suffer?
After leaving the US for the Olympic Games, Kerry was threatened with the cancellation of his American visa [20] . Mark arrived in Moscow and was declared to participate in four disciplines: 100 and 200 meters on his back, 4 × 200 freestyle relay and 4 × 100 combined relay. Due to the lack of Americans and many other swimmers from Western countries, Australia was confident that all three swimmers claimed to be 100 meters backstroke (Kerry, Tonelli and ) would reach the finals and win medals [18 ] . Kerry was third in the qualification heat and semifinals in the 100-meter race, showing results of 58.08 s and 58.07 s, respectively. To reach the final, Mark lacked only 0.02 s, in the overall standings he became ninth, losing 0.18 s to the leader [21] . Patching also failed to qualify for the finals, and Tonelli came in seventh in the decisive race [18] . If Kerry could repeat his best time at this distance - 56.50, he would become the best.
After a failure at a hundred meters, Kerry rehabilitated at a distance of 200 meters. He qualified, taking third place in the overall standings [22] , and in the final race he won a bronze medal (with the result 2: 03.14), losing only to the Hungarians and [13] . He beat the representative of the USSR Vladimir Shemetov by 0.34 s and became the first Australian to win an Olympic medal in individual swimming on his back since 1960, when won the “gold” in the 100-meter [18] [22] . In the 4 × 200 freestyle relay race, Kerry together with Tonelli, and took seventh place in the finals, qualifying there from fourth place [18] . Before the start of the third stage, which Kerry sailed, the Australians were sixth. By the end of his race, Kerry led the Australians to fifth place with only 0.78 seconds behind medals. However, McKeon was unable to maintain his position, and Australia came to finish seventh with 1.52 seconds behind third place [23] .
Relay victory
The 4 × 100 m combined relay was the most important for Kerry in these competitions. In this discipline, from the very beginning of its appearance at the 1960 Olympics , swimmers from the USA have invariably won, but after the Americans announced the boycott of the Games, there was intrigue. Over the past five Olympiads, Australia's best result at this distance was “silver” in 1960, and in 1964 Australian swimmers took bronze, after which the results of Australian national teams became even more deplorable, and in 1976 the Australians did not even qualify to the finals. This time, Australia had many chances to take a medal, but for this it was necessary to bypass one of the favorites - Sweden, Great Britain or the USSR. The starting four of the hosts of the games, the Soviet Union, included silver medalists at a distance of 100 meters breaststroke and on the back of Arsen Miskarov and Viktor Kuznetsov , at the same distance the butterfly Evgeny Seredin was fifth, and Sergey Koplyakov ( freestyle ) - fourth. The British national team included , who won the 100 meter breaststroke, the Swedes claimed winners at the 100 meter butterfly and on the back of and Bengt Baron , as well as silver medalist at the same distance as freestyle [24] .
Against their background, the Australian team looked like an outsider. Neil Brooks , a freestyle swimmer, could not qualify for the finals at a distance of 100 meters due to an asthma attack (14th place in the overall classification) [25] . Kerry himself could not qualify for the finals in a hundred-meter backstroke, Tonelli was also a swimmer on his back (and having shown better results at a distance of 100 meters than Kerry) [1] , was forced to swim butterfly [18] [19] , and only Peter Evans was the only man of the four who won a medal in the relevant discipline (100 meters breaststroke) [26] . Plus over the four was dominated by the fact that Australia did not win a single gold medal at the 1976 Games, as well as at the already completed stage of the 1980 Games, and the public longed for the first, starting in 1972 , Australian victory at the Olympic Games [27] .
Australia's chances of a medal grew after the disqualification of the Swedish national team in the morning swim. Tonelli, the oldest in the relay team (on the day of the swim he was 23), and in fact leading the swimmers, asked his comrades in the final race to give all the best. Kerry promised to swim his stage on his back in 57 seconds, Evans breaststroke in a minute and three seconds, Tonelli butterfly in 54 seconds, and Brooks freestyle in 49.8 - while he had never before sailed out of 51st. Tonelli called the relay four “Quietly Confident Quartet” (“calm and confident quartet”) for the displayed calmness and confidence on the eve of the main start [1] [19] .
Before the start of the final race, Kerry, remembering that in the 100 meter backstroke, Patching slipped on the starting table and fell into the water, and because of which he was disqualified, covered his heels with a sticky red substance, which left them characteristic traces on the carpet, which the organizers slept after the incident with Patching incident [28] . At his stage, Mark showed a better time than in individual discipline (57.87), but, nevertheless, sailed two seconds slower than his personal record, and came to the end of the stage fourth. Evans in the breaststroke set a personal record (1: 03.01), which brought Australia to about the same time as the leaders of the swim, the USSR, showed. Tonelli sailed his stage for 54.94 - almost two seconds faster than the expectations of the swimmer [1] [28] . At the last 50 meters, he began to rapidly lose speed and for some time lagged about two meters behind the leader, but at the very end of his stage he played one meter. In the last stage, Brooks made a timely and long jump from the starting position, which allowed him to immediately catch up with an opponent from the Soviet Union Sergey Koplyakov. The first half of the distance, the Australian swam flush with the opponent, but immediately after the turn made a breakthrough. 25 meters before the finish line, Koplyakov caught up with Brooks, but Brooks made another jerk, culminating in the victory of the Australian national team with a difference of 0.22 s. Brooks sailed his stage in 49.86 seconds, about as much as he promised his teammates [25] . With a result of 3: 45.70 Australia won the combined relay for the first time (both among men and women) [1] . Rejoicing in success, the whole team jumped into the pool, where they were interviewed [28] .
In 2000, Kerry and other representatives of the quartet were awarded [29]
Break and return to the big sport
After the Olympics in Moscow, Kerry for a long time stopped participating in competitions. He received an invitation to take part in in Brisbane , but two weeks of intense training on the eve of qualification was not enough to qualify for the national team. In 1983, Mark began to prepare for the next Olympic Games, but began to seriously train only in October. Kerry was confident in his ability to meet high international standards despite irregular training after lengthy breaks due to technique and “keeping fit” - 80 kg with a height of 190 cm [18] .
He returned to Australia in 1984, and after training in Brisbane, he was selected to participate in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles , despite not having won a national championship that year. Upon arrival in the United States, Kerry was declared to participate in two disciplines: one hundred meter backstroke and combined relay 4 × 100 m [18] . At the first distance, he won the qualification race with a result of 57.15 s, taking third place in the overall standings, but could not take the medal in the final start, and became only fifth with 57.18 s, 0.69 s behind the third place [30] . In the combined relay race, Kerry sailed with Evans, and , who sailed with a butterfly and freestyle respectively. They could not create competition for the Americans, which included three gold medalists in individual competitions, and lost to them for about 4 seconds. Kerry sailed his stage for 57.12 s, after which the Australian team was in third place, losing 1.71 s to the Americans. The Australians were able to hold third place until the end of the relay, losing to Canadians who came second, with a difference of only 0.02 s [13] [18] [31] [32] .
After retirement
After the 1984 Olympics, Kerry ended his sports career. He worked as a model in Los Angeles and led a fashion show on cable television [18] , participated in fashion shows in Milan and Paris [33] . According to Tonelli, Kerry’s mother told her son to “look after her face [because] this is all you have” [34] . Tonelli himself did not agree with this - “he was always more than just a face” [34] , but at the same time confirmed that Kerry especially carefully looked after himself on the eve of the combined relay of the 1980 Olympics, because he wanted to look better in front of the future employer, even despite the low probability of the victory of the Australians.
Kerry married an American Linda, they live at different times in both Australia and the United States. The family has two children: son Tanner is a semi-professional basketball player, daughter Madison is an actress who played in the TV series . The wife of Linda, the architect, is the author of house designs for such famous personalities as Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee [35] . Mark himself, along with his brother Phil, founded one of Australia's largest recruiting firms, Dunhill Management [18] [34] . In 2001, the brothers sold the company to British businessman Robert Walters for 22.7 million A $ , at the same time receiving 13.8 million A $ for guaranteeing the continued success of the company [36] . After selling the business, Kerry worked as an executive director in another company, and then, together with his brother, opened a new recruitment agency, K2 Recruitment & Consalting [37] . In 2015, the Kerry family sold their home on the seashore near Sydney, which they bought three years earlier for $ 5.2 million [35] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Howell, 1988 , p. 234.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Howell, 1988 , p. 235.
- ↑ Mark Kerry . Sports Reference. Date of treatment June 27, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 Swimming at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games: Men's 200 meters Freestyle Relay . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ John Naber . Sports Reference. Date of treatment June 27, 2016.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games: Men's 4 × 200 meters Freestyle Relay . Sports Reference. Date of treatment June 27, 2016.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games: Men's 100 meters Backstroke . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games: Men's 200 meters Backstroke . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Howell, 1988 , p. 236.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games: Men's 4 × 100 meters Medley Relay . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ 1 2 Howell, 1988 , p. 239.
- ↑ Andrews, 2000 , p. 440-441.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Andrews, 2000 , p. 231-232.
- ↑ Forrest, 2008 , p. 85.
- ↑ Tonelli , p. 83-86.
- ↑ Tonelli , p. 88.
- ↑ WORLD STUDENT GAMES (UNIVERSIADE) - SWIMMING AND DIVING (MEN ) . Date of treatment July 10, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Howell, 1988 , p. 237.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Gordon, 1994 , p. 334.
- ↑ Forrest, 2008 , p. 201.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1980 Moskva Summer Games: Men's 100 meters Backstroke . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ 1 2 Swimming at the 1980 Moskva Summer Games: Men's 200 meters Backstroke . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1980 Moskva Summer Games: Men's 4 × 200 meters Freestyle Relay . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ Howell, 1988 , p. 233.
- ↑ 1 2 Andrews, 2000 , p. 63.
- ↑ Andrews, 2000 , p. 148.
- ↑ Gordon, 1994 , p. 333.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Howell, 1988 , p. 242.
- ↑ Mark Kerry . Australian Honors Database. Date of treatment July 31, 2017.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games: Men's 100 meters Backstroke . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ Gordon, 1994 , p. 356.
- ↑ Swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games: Men's 4 × 100 meters Medley Relay . Sports Reference. Date of treatment September 1, 2008.
- ↑ Tonelli , p. 10-11.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Tonelli , p. 7.
- ↑ 1 2 Jonathan Chancellor . Sydney property: Olympian Mark Kerry and wife sell glamorous Rose Bay home, writes Jonathan Chancellor , The Daily Telegraph (08-14-2015).
- ↑ Gold, gold, gold to Kerry brothers, Australian Financial Review (February 26, 2001).
- ↑ History . K2 Recruitment. Date of treatment July 13, 2010.
Literature
- Andrews, Malcolm. Australia at the Olympic Games. - Sydney, New South Wales: Australian Broadcasting Corporation , 2000. - P. 487. - ISBN 0-7333-0884-8 .
- Lisa Forrest. Boycott. - Sydney, New South Wales: Australian Broadcasting Corporation , 2008. - P. 270. - ISBN 978-0-7333-2295-2 .
- Harry Gordon. Australia and the Olympic Games. - Saint Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland , 1994. - P. 540. - ISBN 0-7022-2627-0 .
- Reet Howell, Maxwell Leo Howell. Aussie Gold. - Albion, Queensland: Brooks Waterloo, 1988 .-- P. 359. - ISBN 0-86440-680-0 .
- Mark Tonelli . Tougher than nails: swimming through turbulence (PDF). www.marktonelli.com (September 16, 2008). Date of treatment June 19, 2016. Archived July 14, 2011.