Bhubaneswar will host the country’s first-of-its-kind sports literary festival titled the ‘Ekamra Sports Literary Festival in association with Emerging Sports November 2-3 ushering in a new era in the sports history of the state as well as the country.
The mega event will offer the sports lovers of the Temple City an opportunity to learn and experience interesting and unheard stories from the finest sportspersons and sports journalists in the world. A host of celebrities from across the globe will share their personal experiences and interact with the audience on the occasion.
Even as Indian athletes are trying their best to make a mark in water sports at the global stage, it would be a great opportunity for the state as well as the country to take some inspiration from the triple gold medallist Stephanie Rice when the Australian swimmer graces the stage at the two-day mega literary event.
At the tender age of eight, Rice, who is also a mentor and an entrepreneur, knew that she wanted to swim for her country. But it was only in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing that she drew the world’s attention after winning gold medals in three events and creating world record timings in all three.
Rice won her first Olympic gold medal in the 400-metre individual medley, which incidentally was Australia’s first gold medal of the 2008 Games and the country’s 400th Summer Games medal. Recording a time of 4:29.45, she reclaimed the world record from American Katie Hoff, bettering the mark by 1.67 seconds and became the first woman to break the 4:30 mark in the event, where Kirsty Coventry too clocked under 4:30 in taking the silver.
Her second gold came in n the 200-metre individual medley with a new world record time of 2:08.45. Rice prevailed after being neck-and-neck with Coventry throughout the last 50 metres. Coventrey once again followed Rice to beat the old world record.
Rice bagged her third gold when she, along with her team, won the 4×200-metre freestyle relay team event with yet another world record timing of 7:44.31.
Rice hogged the limelight when she won gold in the 200-metre individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and in doing so she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll in the event clocking 2:12.90, a personal best by 1.19 seconds. She also won the 400-metre individual medley.
At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Rice won a bronze in the 200-metre individual medley with a timing of 2:11.42 seconds, breaking the previous Australian record by a second. Hoff (2:10.13) won the gold followed by Coventry who bagged the silver. Rice also finished third, earning her second bronze medal at the meet, in the 400-metre individual medley final. In a new personal best time, Rice finished in 4:41.19, taking 0.54 of a second off her previous best.
Rice competed in the 2012 London Games after undergoing three shoulder surgeries between the two Olympics. That Olympics was not as good as the previous edition for Rice as she finished fourth in 200-metre individual medley and a joint sixth in 400-metre medley. The London Olympics was her last stop as a swimmer and she eventually announced her retirement in April 2014.
The Australian went on to co-author her own book – ‘The Art of Wellness’ – post retirement at 24. After calling off on her professional career, she continues to win hearts through her passion to enhance people’s lives through one-on-one mentoring, workshops and her own self-motivation programme.
Interestingly, the Australian has joined the broadcast expert panel for the ongoing season of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL). She was also quite excited over her new challenge. “For the first time, I have stepped out of my comfort zone with presenting a new sport like Kabaddi and I really hope that this will be an amazing experience for me and for all the spectators out there,” said Rice, who currently coaches in the greater Los Angeles area with the private coaching service – ‘CoachUp’.
So it will be interesting to share a session with such a multitalented triple Olympic gold medallist, who will share her journey from Queensland to win gold in Beijing.
