Remembering Amy: Amy Gillett, the Girl Who Never Gave Up

235 Pages·2007·1.34 MB·English

by  Mike Safe

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Mike Safe is a writer with
The Weekend Australian Magazine.
He is also Amy Gillett’s uncle. He lives at
Bondi Beach in Sydney.
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Remembering Amy
Amy Gillett, the girl who never gave up
M I K E S A F E
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First published in 2006
Copyright © Mike Safe 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian
Copyright Act 1968(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of
this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational
institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational insti-
tution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Safe, Mike.
Remembering Amy : Amy Gillett, the girl who never gave up.
ISBN 978 1 74114 884 8.
ISBN 1 74114 884 7.
1. Gillett, Amy. 2. Women cyclists - Australia - Biography.
3. Women athletes - Australia - Biography. I. Title.
796.62.092
Edited by Wendy Skilbeck
Cover and text designed by Phil Campbell
Typeset by Michael Kuszla, J&M Typesetting
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Denis, Mary, Georgina and Simon …
and the rowers and riders who
shared Amy’s dream
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Contents
Preface ix
Chapter One:
A Death in Germany 1
Chapter Two:
Picking Up the Pieces 21
Chapter Three:
Bringing Her Home 45
Chapter Four:
Oakmount Court 60
Chapter Five:
Two Girls in a Boat 82
Chapter Six:
The Long Haul to Atlanta 96
Chapter Seven:
From Boat to Bike 114
Chapter Eight:
To Be the Best They Can 134
Chapter Nine:
Winning, Losing, Laughing 154
Chapter Ten:
A Personal View 168
Chapter Eleven:
A Pink Balloon 187
In Her Own Words 192
Appendix 211
Photographic Credits 213
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Preface
In some ways, this was a difficult book to write, being a
member of Amy Gillett’s family. Considerable emotion was
spent by those close to her in telling their stories and, of
course, I already knew much of what they had to say, at least
from our family’s perspective. But, in some ways, it was also
easy to write. For a start, knowing I was her uncle, everyone –
friends, team-mates, rivals and coaches – were more than
willing to share their experiences with her – the good, the
bad and the often hilarious. As I conducted the interviews –
more than forty of them as it turned out – I found these were,
without exception, committed and passionate people able to
express their thoughts and emotions about Amy and her on-
going sporting adventures in a remarkably articulate way.
And so that was how I decided to shape this book – letting
the people who knew her, many of them better than me, tell
their stories in their words. It’s an old interviewer’s rule too
often forgotten today – let those who were there do the
talking. You, the writer, should shut up and listen. You might
learn something.
Of course, Amy was never famous – certainly not in a way
that was going to win her a place on the back of cereal boxes,
as one of her team-mates jokes in this story. But her life of
twenty-nine years came to celebrate what’s supposed to be
the good stuff of Australian sport – going as hard as you can
and never giving up. It took her to an Olympic Games and
won her a couple of world titles and on the way she saw and
experienced more in her short life than most do in ninety
ix
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Remembering Amy
x
years – again, as one of her team-mates remarks in this book.
Her death, along with the serious injuries to five of her
cycling team-mates on a rural German road in July 2005,
touched millions of Australians in a way that few other
sporting stories have in recent times.
There are scores of other young women like Amy who give
themselves to sports such as rowing and cycling where they
will never win fame or fortune. Their sacrifice, and that of
their families, is enormous – much more so than the average
footballer or cricketer who does win all the fame, fortune and
back pages. But most of them, as they explain here, wouldn’t
change it for all the cereal boxes in the world. Hopefully, this
book – the story of a girl from ordinary circumstances who
had an extraordinary determination – will encourage other
young Australians, girls especially, to get out and have a go.
You never know what you might achieve.
Mike Safe
Bondi Beach
Australia