AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2008
Ath: Hooker is the complete package
By John Salvado
BEIJING, Aug 23 AAP - Flawless bloodlines. Great coaching. And the ability to hold
his nerve time and again on the grand stage.
Australia's first Olympic male track and field gold medallist in 40 years has the full package.
Steve Hooker's spine-tingling pole vault triumph last night in Beijing was many years
and many people in the making.
Hooker was always going to take up athletics, being the son of Erica Hooker, a 1972
Olympian and 1978 Commonwealth long jump champion, and Bill Hooker, who competed in the
4x400m relay and 800m at the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
But it was pure coincidence that he was attracted to the pole vault.
At the time in the late 1990s, the star of his local Box Hill Athletics Club was former
Flying Fruit Fly Circus member Emma George, who was regularly breaking world records in
the women's vault when the event was in its infancy.
Hooker convinced George's coach Mark Stewart to let him join their squad.
Stewart turned him into one of the world's best vaulters, but by 2005 Hooker knew he
needed a change.
He wanted a full-time coach, one that could travel with him to Europe for the major competitions.
So Hooker went west to Perth, where ex-Russian vaulter Alex Parnov had built a reputation
as one of the world's best coaches, having guided the fortunes of Dmitri Markov, Tatiana
Grigorieva, Kym Howe and Paul Burgess, among others.
He also coaches his daughter Vicky Parnov, the niece of Grigorieva, who represented
Australian at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and last year's world championships as
a teenager.
"Both of my coaches have been the biggest influences in my life," said the 26-year-old Hooker.
"Without Mark Stewart I probably would not have even started pole vaulting, never had
the early part of my career.
"I never would have learnt to just be a fierce competitor and guts things out.
"Then after moving to Perth, Alex taught me all sorts of thing about technique, about
being professional, about lifestyle, about everything.
"They have both had such a big influence and without either of them all the pieces
wouldn't be there for this to have happened."
Four times in the qualifying round and the final, Hooker was on the verge of elimination,
only to get the necessary clearance on the third and final jump.
The final clearance at 5.85m was edge of the seat stuff, as Hooker willed himself over
the bar at an awkward angle after nearly pulling out during his run-up.
And after clearing the gold medal height of 5.90m he ran straight to Parnov and was
rewarded with a big Russian bear-hug.
"Alex is probably one of, if not the best coach in the world and I've always had a
lot of respect for him and the way he coaches," said Hooker.
"It's a tribute to him now that he's coached an Olympic gold medallist because he definitely
deserves it."
The victory was a far cry from his 23rd-place finish at the Athens Olympics, when he
was still using an abbreviated 12-step run-up, rather than the full 16.
He also bombed out at last year's world championships, finishing ninth after going
into the event as the world No.1.
Hooker paid tribute to the role played by his parents, who watched the dramatic competition
unfold on television from their Melbourne home.
"I'm lucky, I've got good genetics which is a fairly good head start for most people,"
said Hooker, who was also a good junior-level Australian rules footballer.
"But also having level-headed parents, they didn't push me into anything at an early
age, they've never pushed me into anything during my career.
"They are just supportive people who'll do anything for me, they're just two of the
best parents anyone could ask for.
"It's kind of cool having an Olympian for a Mum because you realise Olympians are just
normal people and she was just the person that washed my clothes and told me off when
I did bad things.
"But she went to the Olympics, so to me it seemed like it was something that was achievable
for anyone."
Hooker was Australia's first male athletics gold medallist since Ralph Doubell in the
800m in 1968 and the first man to win an Olympic field event since high jumper John Winter
60 years ago.
AAP jds/mo
KEYWORD: OLY08 ATH HOOKER (AAP SPORTSFEATURE)
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