From Coles to Commonwealth Games Gold

Antimo Iannella chats to Matthew Cowdrey, one of Australia’s rising Swimming stars, who’s about so much more than just winning gold medals.

He coaches juniors at the Norwood swim club, works at his local Coles shopping centre and is in the midst of completing Year 12. In between, disabled swimmer Matthew Cowdrey also likes to break the odd world record in the pool. More than 30 of them in fact, and he’s still just 17 years old.

Sitting in the media centre at the Reggio Calabria club, right next to the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village, Matthew Cowdrey sneaks a peak at the nearby plasma television while I get my equipment ready. It’s 8:02am and the Today Show is on, showing highlights of the previous night’s men’s pole vault final.

“Geez, that’s a tough sport. I don’t know how they do it,” he says in quiet admiration as another jumper makes a successful clearance.

I remark that the statement could easily be directed at himself. Cowdrey has already lowered more than 30 world marks in his short career, including eight in the last three months alone, at both the Commonwealth Games swim trials and in the past week at the Games itself.

He laughs quickly and tries to explain the secrets behind his stunning accomplishments.

“Well, it’s a lot of hard work I can tell you. I swim nine sessions a week, I do two gym sessions, plus recovery sessions. At the moment, I’m still doing Year 12 and before I went away (to the Games), I was working two jobs- coaching juniors at my club (Norwood) and at Coles part-time.

“Basically, I need to work to support myself and my swimming, and obviously I have to do Year 12 to get myself set for post-life swimming. I haven’t had all that much trouble balancing it; it’s just something that I’ve had to do.”

In an era where the Ian Thorpe’s of the world are counting their millions, it’s startling to think that Australia’s top amputee swimmer has to stack shelves and man a cash register just to get by.

However, Matthew Cowdrey is no ordinary young man.

Missing the lower part of his left arm due to a congenital amputation, in Melbourne, he participated in the exceedingly competitive Elite Athletes with a Disability (EAD) category. EAD events are structured so that a range of swimmers with different handicaps battle against each other, with the winner based not on who touches the wall first, but who gets closest to the world record in his or her own disability class.

It sounds difficult, almost having to lower a world mark every time to ensure victory, but not surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to faze Cowdrey. He wins his fair share of races.

“In a way it’s easier and in a way it’s a lot harder. With some of the great (swim) races in history, you’ve had four people coming together to the wall and they’ve just pushed each other all the way, whereas we’ve just got a staggered finish and you don’t know who has won until that board clicks over with the results.

“But at the same time, I’m able to train to what I need to do and concentrate on my race plan and my race goals. I don’t have to worry about anyone else, I just have to make sure I get my skills right; the whole swim is based around what I need to do.”

It’s that single-minded focus and his inherent inclination for hard work that have driven the young teenager to great heights in the sporting arena.

At the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games, a 15-year-old Cowdrey secured two medals of every colour in his first major international meet, on the way to winning both the Junior Athlete of the Year and the Male Sportsperson of the Year at the 11th annual Stan Wickham Awards for Sportspeople with a disability.

Ranked number one in the world in his S9 class for the 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley events, the Adelaide native finally rose to nationwide prominence with his feats at the Games Swim Trials in January. Alongside such luminaries as Leisel Jones, Libby Lenton and Ian Thorpe, Cowdrey astonished, clean sweeping his eight races and smashing six world records- more than everyone else put together.

As an encore, he returned to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre last week and against the best in the Commonwealth, took out his two EAD events, the 50m and 100m freestyle. After each race, as per usual, two capital letters that have become synonymous with Cowdrey- WR- flashed next to his name. At a meet where the Australian men failed to capture an individual gold medal, Cowdrey was the one shining light, but as is his way, he quickly deflects praise.

“It’s something I’m obviously quite proud of, to be the only one to go away with an individual gold, though the guys did swim a lot better than the media portrayed. There were some very good performances from the guys. A lot of the swims were very close, we just had plenty of good competition here.

“But personally, I’ve still got a lot to do in terms of paralympic sport; I still haven’t won a world championship medal. Hopefully I can do that at the world championships in December.”

It appears the wider Australian public is now taking notice of his achievements, with the gifted teenager having to endure fan recognition and countless rounds of media commitments for the first time.

“It’s been a little bit funny….I went down to the (Melbourne) aquarium the other day, just in casual clothes and quite a few people knew who I was and came up and said hello, which kind of scared me a little bit. But the public have been great, very supportive.

“The media have been really good so far as well. I’ve done so much, I really didn’t know there was so much out there to do after a race. But I’m not really worried about the media side of stuff, I do kind of enjoy that, and that is where I’m looking to head on later in life.”

He seems ideal for a role in either television or radio; good-looking, eloquent, composed and media savvy, with a knack for saying the right thing.

Cowdrey lets out a little yawn as tiredness momentarily gets the better of him on this early morning, but he begins to perk up again when conversation turns to his other main goal for the future- promoting the cause of disabled athletes.

“What I really want to do is raise the profile of paralympic sport and break that stereotype that we aren’t professional athletes; that we don’t train the same and that we take short cuts and that kind of thing. I’m looking to make sure people do realize that we are elite athletes, and whether we have a disability of not, we all train the same, break the same records and are part of the same team here.

“I feel lucky in a way, that’s why I’m so keen to take on a leadership position in the realm of disabled swimming, to get out there, get some exposure, break those stereotypes and set an example of what we can do.”

Cowdrey’s desire to make an impact both in and out of the pool is equally genuine and admirable. Rather than seeing it as an obligation, he wants to make a difference because he can, and there’s no doubt swimming will be the better for it.

And in the cut-throat world of international sport, his overall philosophy on competition makes for a refreshing change and could very well be the key to his success.

“Ultimately, all I want to do is be the best I can possibly be and whether that means winning a medal, whether that means winning gold, or whether that means not even making the final, that’s where I’m going to go. When I feel that I’ve completed all that I need to do personally within the sport, that’s when I’ll pull the pin.”

But he emphasizes with a smile: “That won’t be for a LONG time yet.”

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