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Quietly Confident Quartet

January 29, 2023

The Quietly Confident Quartet was the self-given name of the Australian men's 4 × 100 metres medley relay swimming team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and, through the 2016 Olympics, the Australian victory remains the only occasion the United States has not won the event at Olympic level since its inception in 1960. The quartet consisted of backstroker Mark Kerry, breaststroker Peter Evans, butterflyer Mark Tonelli, and freestyler Neil Brooks. The team was nominally led by its oldest member Tonelli, who was 23 and was also a spokesperson for the Australian athletes' campaign for their right to compete at the Olympics against the wishes of the Fraser Government. The team was seen as an unlikely prospect to win; all four of the swimmers had clashed with swimming authorities over disciplinary issues and three experienced suspension or expulsion from the Australian team during their careers.

"Quietly Confident Quartet"
Personal information
Full nameMark Kerry (backstroke),
Peter Evans (breaststroke),
Mark Tonelli (butterfly) and
Neil Brooks (freestyle)
National team Australia
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesMedley relay: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle
Medal record

Australia had previously won medals in the event, but was not regarded as one of the favourites for the gold, as the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and Sweden all fielded more decorated swimmers over the component legs of the relay. After the backstroke leg, Australia was in fourth place and more than a second in arrears of the Soviet leaders. However, Evans was the fastest among the breaststrokers and moved the team into second position at the halfway point in the race; and Tonelli, a makeshift butterflyer, completed his leg in a time much faster than his previous best, allowing Australia to keep the Soviet lead reasonable. Australia's anchor swimmer Brooks overtook his more credentialled Soviet counterpart Sergey Koplyakov in the latter half of the final leg to secure a narrow victory. The quartet disbanded after the Olympics due to Tonelli's retirement, although some of the members continued to be present in the relay team at various times alongside new swimmers. By 1986, all four members of the 1980 team had retired from international competition.

Personnel

Main articles: Mark Tonelli, Mark Kerry, Peter Evans, and Neil Brooks

The Australian team for the event was a young and inexperienced foursome. Mark Tonelli was the oldest at the age of 23, followed by Mark Kerry, who turned 21 a month after the Olympics. Both were attending their second Olympics, while Peter Evans and Neil Brooks were 18 and 17 respectively and had never represented Australia at the Commonwealth, World Championship or Olympic level. Evans and Brooks were from Western Australia, a state that had never been prominent in Australian swimming. The team members had some contact prior to their Olympic selection; Brooks' family had billeted Tonelli in 1976 when the Australian Olympic team held a training camp in Perth. Brooks cited his experience with Tonelli as a motivating factor in his career.[1]

 
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (pictured) pressured the Australian athletes to boycott the Olympics.

The quartet was also marked by rebellious and anti-establishment tendencies. Tonelli and Kerry were expelled from the 1978 Commonwealth Games team by the Australian Swimming Union for violating a curfew during a training camp in Hawaii before the team's trip to Edmonton, Canada for the competition;[2] Tonelli had been out drinking and admitted to smoking marijuana, which was not illegal in Hawaii, while Kerry had been courting a female.[3] In 1980, during the lead-up to the selection of the Olympic team, Brooks walked out of a training camp, alleging that the coaches were neglecting him, while Evans once stopped during a training session and refused to do extra mileage, emphatically proclaiming that "work is a poor substitute for talent".[4] Later in their careers, Evans and Brooks continued to have their clashes with swimming officialdom; Evans over his coaches' demands for more training mileage and Brooks over swimmers' human rights.[4] Brooks was later suspended twice in his career for his clashes with swimming authorities,[5] and expelled from the Australian Institute of Sport for indiscipline.[6]

The rebel qualities of the group were on show in the lead-up to the Olympics. An obstacle arose with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which resulted in a boycott of the Games by a large part of the Western world, led by the United States. The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was also the patron of the Australian Olympic Committee, and he and sections of the public put significant political pressure on the athletes to join the boycott. Tonelli believed that only the sportspeople would suffer from a boycott and that trade relations would continue unabated. He took a leadership role among the athletes, fighting for their right to compete and publicising their cause to the Australian community.[7][8][9] Evans was fully supportive of Tonelli's campaign, reflecting that "We were political tools, and the only ones to suffer would be us."[10] He rhetorically asked: "Do you really think that if we didn't go someone would come up to us after the Games and pat us on the back for not going?"[11]

Kerry was equally adamant that he was going to compete, unlike some swimmers who decided to make personal boycotts. He received offers from Australian officials to not compete in return for financial payments. He said

I 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?[12]

According to women's swimming captain Lisa Forrest,[13] Tonelli adopted populist tactics in championing the athletes' cause. He said that Fraser was sending "wheat to feed the Russian army, wool to clothe the army and Australian metal to make Russian guns",[14] claiming that this contradicted the proposed protest against the invasion and Russian military aggression.[14] Tonelli's anti-authoritarian and individualistic style manifested itself during media appearances,[15] including a news interview in which he debated with Reverend Lance Shilton, who had called the athletes traitors.[15] Shilton expressed sympathy for the athletes, which Tonelli interpreted as condescension. He responded by rolling his eyes and twirling his finger, a gaffe that was shown on national television;[15] Tonelli mistakenly thought that only his voice was being broadcast at the time and that the images were showing something else. Forrest said that "the damage was done—one of our most prominent anti-boycott lobbyists ... looked like a smart alec".[15]

Event history and expectations

See also: Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics

The United States had always won the 4 × 100 m medley relay since the event's inception at the Olympics in 1960 with comfortable margins. The closest winning buffer was 2.6 seconds and in 1972 and 1976 they had won by 4.10 and 3.72 s respectively;[16][17][18][19][20] their boycott opened up the field in the event.[4] In the five previous times the event had been contested, Australia's best result had come in the inaugural race in Rome, where the team of David Theile, Terry Gathercole, Neville Hayes, and Geoff Shipton out-touched Japan to claim silver. The only other time that Australia had won a medal was in Tokyo in 1964, when Peter Reynolds, Ian O'Brien, Kevin Berry, and David Dickson finished behind the United States and Germany. The following two Games saw a fourth placing and an elimination in the heats. The previous outing in 1976 in Montreal had seen Australia come sixth.[4] Kerry was the only veteran of the 1976 relay team who returned to the Olympics in Moscow.[21]

Australia was regarded by swimming analysts as a medal chance, but were not seen as the main threats—Sweden, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union were the most heavily fancied teams.[4] The hosts had the silver medallists in the 100 m backstroke and breaststroke, Viktor Kuznetsov and Arsens Miskarovs respectively, and their butterflyer Yevgeny Seredin had come fifth in his 100 m event. Their freestyler Sergey Koplyakov later came fourth in the corresponding 100 m event. The British boasted Duncan Goodhew, the 100 m breaststroke gold medallist, and Gary Abraham, who had placed fifth in the 100 m backstroke. Sweden's butterflyer Pär Arvidsson and backstroker Bengt Baron had won their respective 100 m events and their freestyle swimmer Per Holmertz would win silver in the 100 m a few days later.[22] Their weakest swimmer was the breaststroker Peter Berggren, who came ninth in the 100 m.[23] On paper, Australia's team paled in comparison. Brooks later came seventh in his 100 m freestyle semifinal and 14th overall after having an asthma attack,[24][25] and Evans was Australia's only medallist in the corresponding individual event, winning bronze in the breaststroke.[26] Kerry had been eliminated in the 100 m backstroke semifinals, while Tonelli was the Australian champion in the 100 m freestyle and backstroke but was swimming as a makeshift butterflyer; the nation did not have an entrant in the 100 m butterfly.[4][9] Adding to the pressure was Australia's failure to win any gold medals in any sport at the 1976 Olympics. This meant that the public were still awaiting their first gold since the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.[27] Coming into the Olympics, Australia was ranked seventh out of the thirteen competing countries.[28]

Race

Main article: Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100-metre medley relay
 
The "Quietly Confident Quartet" pictured after the team's win at the 1980 Moscow Olympics: from left, Peter Evans, Neil Brooks, Mark Tonelli, and Mark Kerry.

The medley relay was scheduled for Thursday, 24 July, the fifth day of swimming competition, with heats in the morning and the final in the evening. Australia's prospects improved when Sweden was disqualified in the first heat.[4] Australia and the Soviet Union swam in the second heat. With their superior depth, the home team was able to rest their entire first-choice quartet in the heats. On the other hand, Australia was only willing to rest Kerry—Glenn Patching swam the backstroke leg in his place.[29] The hosts led the Australians from the start and extended their margin over each of the first three legs. Brooks reclaimed 1.34 s on the freestyle leg, but the Australians fell 0.13 s short to come second in their heat. Nevertheless, the Australians still qualified in second place overall, as they and the Soviets were more than 1.5 s faster than the third-placed Hungarians. In any case, despite resting all of their first-choice quartet, the home team were still faster than the Australians, who had fielded all but one of their full-strength team.[29]

Evans brashly took the opportunity to attempt to regain the psychological ascendancy from Goodhew, confronting him privately and stating that "we will win it", later reporting that the Briton was astounded by his posturing.[11] The eldest swimmer in the quartet at the age of 23, Tonelli convened the team as its de facto leader. He asked his compatriots to commit to swimming their legs in a certain time; Kerry vowed to swim the backstroke in 57 s, Evans the breaststroke in 63 s flat, Tonelli the butterfly in 54 s and Brooks promised to anchor the team in 49.8 s, even though he had never gone faster than 51 s. Tonelli named the foursome the "Quietly Confident Quartet" because they exhibited a reserved self-belief as they lined up for the race. Whereas most of the other teams were "psyching up" in the marshalling area, the Australians were remaining light-hearted and placid, confident that they could perform in the water.[4][9]

Patching was one of several backstrokers who had slipped on the starting area earlier in the meet, so Kerry decided to rub a sticky red substance onto the soles of his feet. The Soviet organisers had provided a carpet following the incidents, resulting in Kerry leaving red footprints in the stadium.[11] Kerry led off in a time faster than his effort in the individual event, but it was still two seconds slower than his personal best. He finished his leg in 57.87 s, leaving Australia in fourth place.[4] Kuznetsov gave the Soviets the lead after posting a time of 56.81 s, with Hungary and Great Britain in second and third place. France was the last to reach the 100 m mark, recording a time of 58.84 s.[29] Evans then swam a personal best of 63.01 s, the fastest split among the breaststrokers by 0.63 s. His leg moved Australia into second place at the halfway mark, just 0.45 s behind the hosts and roughly half a second ahead of the British and the Hungarians. The four leading teams had broken away, leaving a two-second gap back to the fifth-placed East Germans.[4][11][29]

Tonelli then swam his leg in 54.94 s, almost two seconds faster than his previous best over the distance.[4] He began to lose ground in the last 50 m and was a bodylength behind Seredin until a late surge brought him to within a metre by the time the swimmers touched the wall.[4] If Tonelli had replicated his relay leg in the individual event, he would have claimed the silver medal.[8] Although he lost 0.36 s to Seredin, he had minimised his loss and Australia were within 0.81 s going into the final leg. Furthermore, the Australians were now more than a second clear of the third-placed Great Britain.[29]

Brooks then executed a powerful, well-timed dive and surfaced almost even with his Soviet counterpart Koplyakov. He had drawn level halfway through his leg and made a superior turn to take the lead as they headed home. The Soviet freestyler pulled level with 25 m to go before Brooks again pulled away to seal an Australian victory by 0.22 s.[4] He did not breathe in the last ten metres, and claimed to be laughing for the final five metres, confident that his opponent could not pass him.[30] Brooks had finished his leg in 49.86 s as he had vowed to his teammates.[24] In doing so, he recorded the swiftest freestyle split in the relay, faster than that of the individual 100 m freestyle gold medallist, Jörg Woithe of East Germany.[29]

The time of 3 m 45.70 s sealed Australia's first win in a medley relay at the Olympics, for men or women. It remains the only time that the United States has not won the men's event.[4] The team made a celebratory dive into the water and did a poolside interview.[11] Tonelli remarked that "I was totally stunned. After all the hassle, and my being the athletes' mouthpiece, we'd come through and done it".[8][9][31] Forrest hailed the win as "a gold medal that should never have been".[28]

Sportscaster Norman May's dramatic call of the race on the 2UE radio network, ending with "Gold, gold for Australia, gold!", became one of Australia's best-known and most iconic sports commentaries.[32]

Government reaction

Relations between the Olympians and the Australian Government remained tense after months of political struggle regarding the boycott. A prime minister would customarily send a congratulatory message to Olympic medallists.[33] However, the Australian Olympic chef de mission Phil Coles confirmed at the following day's press conference that the quartet had not received a message from Malcolm Fraser. Australian journalists soon bombarded Fraser's office with phone calls asking why he had not applauded the athletes. Various members of the government recommended that Fraser congratulate the swimmers, but the prime minister baulked. When questioned in a radio interview, he said "I hope that circumstances do not arise over the next few years which will cause them to have very great regrets about the fact that they've gone".[33] Fraser relented and late in the night, his office sent a telegram.[33][34] However, he would not send his message directly to the Olympic village, so the telegram was sent to the Australian Embassy in Moscow.[33] Fraser had ordered the Australian diplomatic mission to close its doors to the Olympians,[35] so the embassy staff had to pass the envelopes containing the message through the fence to Australian Olympic officials. Fraser's telegram said:[36]

You know I did not and do not approve of Australia being represented at these Olympic Games. I do want to say however that your performance in the relay was a truly great sporting achievement. My personal congratulations.[36]

Coles reported that the relay squad tore up the prime minister's message.[36]

Aftermath

The quartet never competed as a unit after the Moscow Olympics. Tonelli retired immediately after the Games,[31] while Kerry took an extended break. The backstroker attempted a comeback in the leadup to the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, but his abbreviated preparation before the selection trials was not enough and he was defeated by other swimmers.[12] This left Evans and Brooks as the only members of the 1980 team to participate in Australia's medley relay victory at the Commonwealth Games.[37] In 1984, Kerry secured a recall to the team as Australia's preferred backstroker,[12] while Brooks was surpassed by Mark Stockwell as the leading freestyler.[5] Australia came third in the 1984 Summer Olympics in the medley relay as the Americans returned to the Olympic fold; Evans and Kerry swam in the final, while Brooks did the freestyle leg in the heats.[37] Evans and Kerry retired after the Olympics,[12][37] and Brooks was not the first-choice swimmer in 1986, meaning that a totally different quartet competed in the medley relay at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. Brooks was suspended for drunken behaviour on the flight back to Australia, and then retired, and all four members of the Quietly Confident Quartet had departed the Australian swimming scene.[38]

Notes

  1. ^ Howell, p. 244.
  2. ^ Forrest, p. 85.
  3. ^ Tonelli, pp. 83–86.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Howell, p. 234.
  5. ^ a b Howell, p. 246.
  6. ^ Talbot, Heads and Berry, p. 124.
  7. ^ Howell, p. 239.
  8. ^ a b c Andrews, pp. 440–441.
  9. ^ a b c d Gordon, p. 334.
  10. ^ Howell, p. 241.
  11. ^ a b c d e Howell, p. 242.
  12. ^ a b c d Howell, p. 237.
  13. ^ Forrest, p. xiv.
  14. ^ a b Forrest, p. 43.
  15. ^ a b c d Forrest, pp. 163–164.
  16. ^ . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  17. ^ . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  18. ^ . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  19. ^ . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  20. ^ . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  21. ^ Howell, p. 236.
  22. ^ Howell, p. 233.
  23. ^ . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  24. ^ a b Andrews, p. 63.
  25. ^ . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  26. ^ Andrews, p. 148.
  27. ^ Gordon, p. 333.
  28. ^ a b Forrest, p. 212.
  29. ^ a b c d e f . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  30. ^ Howell, p. 245.
  31. ^ a b Howell, p. 240.
  32. ^ "Overview Gold Gold Gold: 4 x 100 Metres Men's Medley Relay (1980)". Australian Screen Online. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  33. ^ a b c d Forrest, p. 213.
  34. ^ "Late bravo from PM". The Age. 26 July 1980. p. 1.
  35. ^ Forrest, p. 202.
  36. ^ a b c Forrest, p. 214.
  37. ^ a b c Howell, p. 243.
  38. ^ Howell, p. 247.

References

External links

  • "Mark Tonelli – Dual Olympian and Gold Medalist". Retrieved 11 March 2016. Video of the race.

January 29, 2023
quietly, confident, quartet, self, given, name, australian, metres, medley, relay, swimming, team, that, gold, medal, 1980, summer, olympics, moscow, united, states, boycotted, moscow, olympics, protest, against, soviet, invasion, afghanistan, through, 2016, o. The Quietly Confident Quartet was the self given name of the Australian men s 4 100 metres medley relay swimming team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow The United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and through the 2016 Olympics the Australian victory remains the only occasion the United States has not won the event at Olympic level since its inception in 1960 The quartet consisted of backstroker Mark Kerry breaststroker Peter Evans butterflyer Mark Tonelli and freestyler Neil Brooks The team was nominally led by its oldest member Tonelli who was 23 and was also a spokesperson for the Australian athletes campaign for their right to compete at the Olympics against the wishes of the Fraser Government The team was seen as an unlikely prospect to win all four of the swimmers had clashed with swimming authorities over disciplinary issues and three experienced suspension or expulsion from the Australian team during their careers Quietly Confident Quartet Personal informationFull nameMark Kerry backstroke Peter Evans breaststroke Mark Tonelli butterfly andNeil Brooks freestyle National team AustraliaSportSportSwimmingStrokesMedley relay backstroke breaststroke butterfly freestyleMedal record Olympic Games1980 Moscow 4 100 m medley relayAustralia had previously won medals in the event but was not regarded as one of the favourites for the gold as the Soviet Union Great Britain and Sweden all fielded more decorated swimmers over the component legs of the relay After the backstroke leg Australia was in fourth place and more than a second in arrears of the Soviet leaders However Evans was the fastest among the breaststrokers and moved the team into second position at the halfway point in the race and Tonelli a makeshift butterflyer completed his leg in a time much faster than his previous best allowing Australia to keep the Soviet lead reasonable Australia s anchor swimmer Brooks overtook his more credentialled Soviet counterpart Sergey Koplyakov in the latter half of the final leg to secure a narrow victory The quartet disbanded after the Olympics due to Tonelli s retirement although some of the members continued to be present in the relay team at various times alongside new swimmers By 1986 all four members of the 1980 team had retired from international competition Contents 1 Personnel 2 Event history and expectations 3 Race 4 Government reaction 5 Aftermath 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksPersonnel EditMain articles Mark Tonelli Mark Kerry Peter Evans and Neil Brooks The Australian team for the event was a young and inexperienced foursome Mark Tonelli was the oldest at the age of 23 followed by Mark Kerry who turned 21 a month after the Olympics Both were attending their second Olympics while Peter Evans and Neil Brooks were 18 and 17 respectively and had never represented Australia at the Commonwealth World Championship or Olympic level Evans and Brooks were from Western Australia a state that had never been prominent in Australian swimming The team members had some contact prior to their Olympic selection Brooks family had billeted Tonelli in 1976 when the Australian Olympic team held a training camp in Perth Brooks cited his experience with Tonelli as a motivating factor in his career 1 Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser pictured pressured the Australian athletes to boycott the Olympics The quartet was also marked by rebellious and anti establishment tendencies Tonelli and Kerry were expelled from the 1978 Commonwealth Games team by the Australian Swimming Union for violating a curfew during a training camp in Hawaii before the team s trip to Edmonton Canada for the competition 2 Tonelli had been out drinking and admitted to smoking marijuana which was not illegal in Hawaii while Kerry had been courting a female 3 In 1980 during the lead up to the selection of the Olympic team Brooks walked out of a training camp alleging that the coaches were neglecting him while Evans once stopped during a training session and refused to do extra mileage emphatically proclaiming that work is a poor substitute for talent 4 Later in their careers Evans and Brooks continued to have their clashes with swimming officialdom Evans over his coaches demands for more training mileage and Brooks over swimmers human rights 4 Brooks was later suspended twice in his career for his clashes with swimming authorities 5 and expelled from the Australian Institute of Sport for indiscipline 6 The rebel qualities of the group were on show in the lead up to the Olympics An obstacle arose with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which resulted in a boycott of the Games by a large part of the Western world led by the United States The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was also the patron of the Australian Olympic Committee and he and sections of the public put significant political pressure on the athletes to join the boycott Tonelli believed that only the sportspeople would suffer from a boycott and that trade relations would continue unabated He took a leadership role among the athletes fighting for their right to compete and publicising their cause to the Australian community 7 8 9 Evans was fully supportive of Tonelli s campaign reflecting that We were political tools and the only ones to suffer would be us 10 He rhetorically asked Do you really think that if we didn t go someone would come up to us after the Games and pat us on the back for not going 11 Kerry was equally adamant that he was going to compete unlike some swimmers who decided to make personal boycotts He received offers from Australian officials to not compete in return for financial payments He said I 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 12 According to women s swimming captain Lisa Forrest 13 Tonelli adopted populist tactics in championing the athletes cause He said that Fraser was sending wheat to feed the Russian army wool to clothe the army and Australian metal to make Russian guns 14 claiming that this contradicted the proposed protest against the invasion and Russian military aggression 14 Tonelli s anti authoritarian and individualistic style manifested itself during media appearances 15 including a news interview in which he debated with Reverend Lance Shilton who had called the athletes traitors 15 Shilton expressed sympathy for the athletes which Tonelli interpreted as condescension He responded by rolling his eyes and twirling his finger a gaffe that was shown on national television 15 Tonelli mistakenly thought that only his voice was being broadcast at the time and that the images were showing something else Forrest said that the damage was done one of our most prominent anti boycott lobbyists looked like a smart alec 15 Event history and expectations EditSee also Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics The United States had always won the 4 100 m medley relay since the event s inception at the Olympics in 1960 with comfortable margins The closest winning buffer was 2 6 seconds and in 1972 and 1976 they had won by 4 10 and 3 72 s respectively 16 17 18 19 20 their boycott opened up the field in the event 4 In the five previous times the event had been contested Australia s best result had come in the inaugural race in Rome where the team of David Theile Terry Gathercole Neville Hayes and Geoff Shipton out touched Japan to claim silver The only other time that Australia had won a medal was in Tokyo in 1964 when Peter Reynolds Ian O Brien Kevin Berry and David Dickson finished behind the United States and Germany The following two Games saw a fourth placing and an elimination in the heats The previous outing in 1976 in Montreal had seen Australia come sixth 4 Kerry was the only veteran of the 1976 relay team who returned to the Olympics in Moscow 21 Australia was regarded by swimming analysts as a medal chance but were not seen as the main threats Sweden Great Britain and the Soviet Union were the most heavily fancied teams 4 The hosts had the silver medallists in the 100 m backstroke and breaststroke Viktor Kuznetsov and Arsens Miskarovs respectively and their butterflyer Yevgeny Seredin had come fifth in his 100 m event Their freestyler Sergey Koplyakov later came fourth in the corresponding 100 m event The British boasted Duncan Goodhew the 100 m breaststroke gold medallist and Gary Abraham who had placed fifth in the 100 m backstroke Sweden s butterflyer Par Arvidsson and backstroker Bengt Baron had won their respective 100 m events and their freestyle swimmer Per Holmertz would win silver in the 100 m a few days later 22 Their weakest swimmer was the breaststroker Peter Berggren who came ninth in the 100 m 23 On paper Australia s team paled in comparison Brooks later came seventh in his 100 m freestyle semifinal and 14th overall after having an asthma attack 24 25 and Evans was Australia s only medallist in the corresponding individual event winning bronze in the breaststroke 26 Kerry had been eliminated in the 100 m backstroke semifinals while Tonelli was the Australian champion in the 100 m freestyle and backstroke but was swimming as a makeshift butterflyer the nation did not have an entrant in the 100 m butterfly 4 9 Adding to the pressure was Australia s failure to win any gold medals in any sport at the 1976 Olympics This meant that the public were still awaiting their first gold since the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich 27 Coming into the Olympics Australia was ranked seventh out of the thirteen competing countries 28 Race EditMain article Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics Men s 4 100 metre medley relay The Quietly Confident Quartet pictured after the team s win at the 1980 Moscow Olympics from left Peter Evans Neil Brooks Mark Tonelli and Mark Kerry The medley relay was scheduled for Thursday 24 July the fifth day of swimming competition with heats in the morning and the final in the evening Australia s prospects improved when Sweden was disqualified in the first heat 4 Australia and the Soviet Union swam in the second heat With their superior depth the home team was able to rest their entire first choice quartet in the heats On the other hand Australia was only willing to rest Kerry Glenn Patching swam the backstroke leg in his place 29 The hosts led the Australians from the start and extended their margin over each of the first three legs Brooks reclaimed 1 34 s on the freestyle leg but the Australians fell 0 13 s short to come second in their heat Nevertheless the Australians still qualified in second place overall as they and the Soviets were more than 1 5 s faster than the third placed Hungarians In any case despite resting all of their first choice quartet the home team were still faster than the Australians who had fielded all but one of their full strength team 29 Evans brashly took the opportunity to attempt to regain the psychological ascendancy from Goodhew confronting him privately and stating that we will win it later reporting that the Briton was astounded by his posturing 11 The eldest swimmer in the quartet at the age of 23 Tonelli convened the team as its de facto leader He asked his compatriots to commit to swimming their legs in a certain time Kerry vowed to swim the backstroke in 57 s Evans the breaststroke in 63 s flat Tonelli the butterfly in 54 s and Brooks promised to anchor the team in 49 8 s even though he had never gone faster than 51 s Tonelli named the foursome the Quietly Confident Quartet because they exhibited a reserved self belief as they lined up for the race Whereas most of the other teams were psyching up in the marshalling area the Australians were remaining light hearted and placid confident that they could perform in the water 4 9 Patching was one of several backstrokers who had slipped on the starting area earlier in the meet so Kerry decided to rub a sticky red substance onto the soles of his feet The Soviet organisers had provided a carpet following the incidents resulting in Kerry leaving red footprints in the stadium 11 Kerry led off in a time faster than his effort in the individual event but it was still two seconds slower than his personal best He finished his leg in 57 87 s leaving Australia in fourth place 4 Kuznetsov gave the Soviets the lead after posting a time of 56 81 s with Hungary and Great Britain in second and third place France was the last to reach the 100 m mark recording a time of 58 84 s 29 Evans then swam a personal best of 63 01 s the fastest split among the breaststrokers by 0 63 s His leg moved Australia into second place at the halfway mark just 0 45 s behind the hosts and roughly half a second ahead of the British and the Hungarians The four leading teams had broken away leaving a two second gap back to the fifth placed East Germans 4 11 29 Tonelli then swam his leg in 54 94 s almost two seconds faster than his previous best over the distance 4 He began to lose ground in the last 50 m and was a bodylength behind Seredin until a late surge brought him to within a metre by the time the swimmers touched the wall 4 If Tonelli had replicated his relay leg in the individual event he would have claimed the silver medal 8 Although he lost 0 36 s to Seredin he had minimised his loss and Australia were within 0 81 s going into the final leg Furthermore the Australians were now more than a second clear of the third placed Great Britain 29 Brooks then executed a powerful well timed dive and surfaced almost even with his Soviet counterpart Koplyakov He had drawn level halfway through his leg and made a superior turn to take the lead as they headed home The Soviet freestyler pulled level with 25 m to go before Brooks again pulled away to seal an Australian victory by 0 22 s 4 He did not breathe in the last ten metres and claimed to be laughing for the final five metres confident that his opponent could not pass him 30 Brooks had finished his leg in 49 86 s as he had vowed to his teammates 24 In doing so he recorded the swiftest freestyle split in the relay faster than that of the individual 100 m freestyle gold medallist Jorg Woithe of East Germany 29 The time of 3 m 45 70 s sealed Australia s first win in a medley relay at the Olympics for men or women It remains the only time that the United States has not won the men s event 4 The team made a celebratory dive into the water and did a poolside interview 11 Tonelli remarked that I was totally stunned After all the hassle and my being the athletes mouthpiece we d come through and done it 8 9 31 Forrest hailed the win as a gold medal that should never have been 28 Sportscaster Norman May s dramatic call of the race on the 2UE radio network ending with Gold gold for Australia gold became one of Australia s best known and most iconic sports commentaries 32 Government reaction EditRelations between the Olympians and the Australian Government remained tense after months of political struggle regarding the boycott A prime minister would customarily send a congratulatory message to Olympic medallists 33 However the Australian Olympic chef de mission Phil Coles confirmed at the following day s press conference that the quartet had not received a message from Malcolm Fraser Australian journalists soon bombarded Fraser s office with phone calls asking why he had not applauded the athletes Various members of the government recommended that Fraser congratulate the swimmers but the prime minister baulked When questioned in a radio interview he said I hope that circumstances do not arise over the next few years which will cause them to have very great regrets about the fact that they ve gone 33 Fraser relented and late in the night his office sent a telegram 33 34 However he would not send his message directly to the Olympic village so the telegram was sent to the Australian Embassy in Moscow 33 Fraser had ordered the Australian diplomatic mission to close its doors to the Olympians 35 so the embassy staff had to pass the envelopes containing the message through the fence to Australian Olympic officials Fraser s telegram said 36 You know I did not and do not approve of Australia being represented at these Olympic Games I do want to say however that your performance in the relay was a truly great sporting achievement My personal congratulations 36 Coles reported that the relay squad tore up the prime minister s message 36 Aftermath EditThe quartet never competed as a unit after the Moscow Olympics Tonelli retired immediately after the Games 31 while Kerry took an extended break The backstroker attempted a comeback in the leadup to the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane but his abbreviated preparation before the selection trials was not enough and he was defeated by other swimmers 12 This left Evans and Brooks as the only members of the 1980 team to participate in Australia s medley relay victory at the Commonwealth Games 37 In 1984 Kerry secured a recall to the team as Australia s preferred backstroker 12 while Brooks was surpassed by Mark Stockwell as the leading freestyler 5 Australia came third in the 1984 Summer Olympics in the medley relay as the Americans returned to the Olympic fold Evans and Kerry swam in the final while Brooks did the freestyle leg in the heats 37 Evans and Kerry retired after the Olympics 12 37 and Brooks was not the first choice swimmer in 1986 meaning that a totally different quartet competed in the medley relay at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh Brooks was suspended for drunken behaviour on the flight back to Australia and then retired and all four members of the Quietly Confident Quartet had departed the Australian swimming scene 38 Notes Edit Howell p 244 Forrest p 85 Tonelli pp 83 86 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Howell p 234 a b Howell p 246 Talbot Heads and Berry p 124 Howell p 239 a b c Andrews pp 440 441 a b c d Gordon p 334 Howell p 241 a b c d e Howell p 242 a b c d Howell p 237 Forrest p xiv a b Forrest p 43 a b c d Forrest pp 163 164 Swimming at the 1960 Roma Summer Games Men s 4 100 metres Medley Relay Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 Swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games Men s 4 100 metres Medley Relay Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 Swimming at the 1968 Ciudad de Mexico Summer Games Men s 4 100 metres Medley Relay Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 Swimming at the 1972 Munchen Summer Games Men s 4 100 metres Medley Relay Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 Swimming at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games Men s 4 100 metres Medley Relay Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 Howell p 236 Howell p 233 Swimming at the 1980 Moskva Summer Games Men s 100 metres Breaststroke Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 a b Andrews p 63 Swimming at the 1980 Moskva Summer Games Men s 100 metres Freestyle Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 Andrews p 148 Gordon p 333 a b Forrest p 212 a b c d e f Swimming at the 1980 Moskva Summer Games Men s 4 100 metres Medley Relay Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 1 September 2008 Howell p 245 a b Howell p 240 Overview Gold Gold Gold 4 x 100 Metres Men s Medley Relay 1980 Australian Screen Online Retrieved 11 March 2016 a b c d Forrest p 213 Late bravo from PM The Age 26 July 1980 p 1 Forrest p 202 a b c Forrest p 214 a b c Howell p 243 Howell p 247 References EditAndrews Malcolm 2000 Australia at the Olympic Games Sydney New South Wales ABC Books ISBN 0 7333 0884 8 Forrest Lisa 2008 Boycott Sydney New South Wales Australian Broadcasting Corporation ISBN 978 0 7333 2295 2 Gordon Harry 1994 Australia and the Olympic Games St Lucia Queensland University of Queensland ISBN 0 7022 2627 0 Howell Max 1986 Aussie Gold Albion Queensland Brooks Waterloo ISBN 0 86440 680 0 Talbot Don Berry Kevin 2003 Talbot Nothing But the Best South Melbourne Victoria Lothian ISBN 0 7344 0512 X Tonelli Mark 2008 Tougher than nails swimming through turbulence PDF Mark Tonelli Archived from the original PDF on 14 July 2011 External links Edit Mark Tonelli Dual Olympian and Gold Medalist Retrieved 11 March 2016 Video of the race Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Quietly Confident Quartet amp oldid 1104310814, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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