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Go back to work son! How Australia’s oldest Olympian made it to Munich

 

Go back to work son! How Australia’s oldest Olympian made it to Munich

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AOC
Gordon Ingate 2023

Gordon Ingate OAM is Australia’s oldest living Olympian and known as one of the most accomplished sailors in Australian history. His road to the Olympics was all but smooth sailing.

The 97-year-old sailor proudly brings truth to the saying once a competitor, always a competitor.

He reminisces about a sporting career spanning 88 years as he looks out over the water from his living room in Sydney. He’s gazing at the same boat he owned at 24. A 30-footer called Jasnar, the boat he sailed the 1950 Sydney to Hobart race on.

“That boat has a lot of memories,” he said.

Gordon, also known as ‘Wingnut’, has a cheeky sense of humour and quite the tale to tell. One he told in his book, what he wanted to call ‘Every time I Bend-over a Rainbow Pops out of My Ass.’ His publisher pushed back on the title and suggested ‘Dragons and Rainbows’ might help with the sales.

He loves telling that story.

Gordon was born in 1926 in Sydney. He got right into SeaScouts at nine, then the VS Skiffs, which set his mast in the direction of not only a passion for the sport but an Olympic pathway. He built a couple of his own VCs. The first didn’t stand up to the Sydney southerlies so well, but the second was lighter and stronger and led him to state and national titles.

Sailing has been an Olympic sport since its debut in the 1900 Paris Games. It had been planned for the Olympiad in Greece in 1896 but was cancelled due to rough weather.

Despite its prestige on the world stage, the time in which Gordon became competitive and strived to represent Australia was a tough time across the world.

In 1948, he was 22 and working for the company that made the gearboxes for the first Holden motor cars, he said.

“I was a time and motion study guy,” said Gordon. “I was trying to help the workers work more efficiently, but a lot of it came from my imagination,” he laughed.

He recalls the boss was Swedish and he was very tough.

“I won the right to represent Australia in the London Olympics, and back then you had to get a ship so I needed up to six months off work to get to England, compete and return home,” he said.

“What do you want, son?” His boss belted back.

“I’d like to go to England and have time off, I’ve got to go by ship, I’ll need six months,” he asked.

“No way, son, get back to work!” And that was that.

The story repeats itself in 1952. Gordon qualifies for the Helsinki Games. Now there were flights available, but they took 10 days to get you to Finland.

“I need a month off, sir,” he asked.

“No bloody way, son, get back to work!” The boss repeated.

And so Gordon went back to work.

But he also continued competing in Australian regattas. If he could qualify twice, surely the opportunity would come up again.

In 1956 he entered the Prince Phillip Cup (now the Australian Championships), a regatta held after the Melbourne Olympics. Every team that competed in the Olympics, except the Swedish gold medallists, stayed to attend, but only Australian boats could win.

“I won the series,” said Gordon. “I beat all the Olympians!”

He continued competing in the event. He won it four times in the Dragon class. The last time was just three years ago at 94, when he became the oldest champion in the sport’s history.

Off the water, Gordon fell into engineering and became his own boss.

In 1960 he was putting the first aluminium roof on a home, his home, in Sydney, when an architect walked by and asked him to quote for the Coogee Telephone Exchange. This opportunity opened him up to a line of work that led to the Sydney Wool Exchange’s 56-acre roofing project.

“And then I retired,” he said.

In 1972 Gordon gained one more opportunity to compete in the Olympics after qualifying for the Munich Games in the Tempest Class.

“It was one of the happiest teams,” he recalls. “We had a very, very good Olympic team that year, and we won more medals than any of the previous teams.

“There was one person with interesting results, though. One of the team members who didn’t do very well. He came second last. That was me.” he chuckles.

“The guy I beat was the Prince of Siam, though,” he added.

An optimist in hindsight of that event, and perhaps some humble advice for any athlete today, Gordon said, “To hold an Olympic race, you have to have a first, second and third place, then the others. If you don’t have a last place you can’t have a regatta. That was my logic,” he laughed.

Gordon finally made it to the Olympics and didn’t have to get approval for time off. To be on the world stage was enough, and at age 46, it was still just the beginning.

He has gone on to become a respected Australian and International competitor, known as one of Australia’s greatest helmsmen in the International Dragon Class, he’s a Sydney to Hobart Veteran, Americas Cup contender (1977), and Admirals Cup Skipper, just to headline an incredible list of achievements.

Despite not bringing an Olympic medal from Munich, Gordon has devoted his lifetime to the sport of sailing and received a number of national and international accolades.

The true and humbling glory for Gordon is not in his lack of medals, championships or near-misses, it’s his impact on the sport.

And in sport, some of the greatest athletes are not measured or remembered by the glory of their results but by their dedication to the sport and its community.

Gordon has continued to compete for more than half a century since Munich. Like that wide-eyed nine-year-old, he still loves nothing more than the delight of boarding his Dragon for a Sydney Harbour regatta.

Sally Mac

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