Olympic Diary

Shane Gould’s Munich diary 1972

Olympian

The often crushing pressure of success on young sportspeople is not a new phenomenon. Shane Gould’s diary, kept at the Munich Olympics in 1972, is a rare and articulate contemporary account of the private and emotional world, the triumphs and traumas, of a young elite athlete. Gould was only fifteen when she won her first Olympic gold medal for Australia at Munich, then another two, making her the first woman to win three gold medals at the one Olympics in world record times. She was chosen as Australian of the Year later in 1972. The following year she left the sport altogether.

The diary records her attempt to cope with the gruelling training program, strict diet, media engagements, drug testing and pressures of success—as well as the shocking murder of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches by members of the Black September movement.
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