I’ve never forgotten meeting Hannah Miley before she launched her bid to retain her title at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
It was one of those occasions where many sporting personalities feel uncomfortable in the limelight as they strive to mix humility with optimism and offer quotable opinions without sounding wishy-washy or arrogant.
But Miley, the little coiled spring of effervescence and energy who snapped up a prodigious amount of prizes and medals throughout her career, could hardly have been more different once the dictaphones were switched on.
The Inverurie woman was typically bubbly, loquacious and disarming – “I tend to waffle a lot” – while telling us how her preparations were going.
And while she stopped short of proclaiming she would definitely gain another gold in the 400m individual medley event at the Glasgow festival to add to the one she had picked up in Delhi in India four years earlier, she made it pretty clear that if any of her opponents, Australian, English or otherwise, managed to beat her, they would be bloody exhausted by the end of the race.
Here in all her glory was Smiley Miley; at first glance a diminutive waif, but on a second look, about as fragile as a moose.
The build-up to the Games in front of her home crowd had not been easy. As the then 25-year-old said: “The first half of this season was tough for me, psychologically, and I had to talk to myself about what was happening.
“It was difficult. The hard work I was putting into training was not being reflected in results and performances. But, if you have been doing this as long as I have, you recognise that swimming can be a very unforgiving sport.
All the focus was on her on day one
“I am in a good place now, though, and I think I am pretty close to my best. In swimming, you can be feeling great one day and rubbish the next, but I am confident that I am where I want to be a week before the start.”
Expectations were high, pressure surrounded her, and she was competing on the very first day of action with hundreds of thousands of Scots willing her on to achieve her quest. Did that knowledge bother her?
Of course it didn’t!
Miley had to push hard when the action commenced, but her performance epitomised all the qualities which she poured into her illustrious career.
There was guts, energy, technical expertise and unstinting determination and she was boosted by the fans, who screamed her home in the closing stages.
As she said afterwards: “I wanted it, I really wanted it. I had no energy left at the end, but the crowd lifted me so much and the buzz was incredible.
“I knew it would be difficult, but I had just to stick my head down. To defend a title is a very big challenge and I was very aware I could do it. But I had to go out there and perform. And I did it….even though I’m no spring chicken.”
That last tongue-in-cheek remark offered a reminder of how many years the redoubtable Miley had been involved in gruelling pool sessions, whatever the weather and regardless of how she was feeling, as she pursued her ambitions under the tutelage of her equally driven father Patrick.
She suffered a dodgy few moments in Melbourne at the 2006 Commonwealth Games when she forgot her accreditation pass in the athletes’ village and had to break into her room to retrieve it, but the Scot was never lacking in the key ingredients to survive and thrive on the biggest of stages.
On the contrary, her record spoke volumes about the idiosyncratic fashion in which she and her dad plotted a path from Garioch Aquatics Club in Inverurie to podiums at Commonwealth, European and World Championship level.
Miley’s symbiosis with her father was similar to that which surrounded Peter and Sebastian Coe in advance of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow; yet even though Patrick was a hard taskmaster who encouraged his daughter to adopt the mentality that there’s no reward without physical pain and discomfort, she spoke about him with genuine admiration and unstinting respect.
“My dad has been my greatest influence, I would not be swimming if it was not for him and I would simply not be as good a swimmer if he was not my coach, so it’s good that I am able to take him on the journey.”
As you might expect, it wasn’t all plain sailing on the Odyssean journey.
There were lachrymose scenes in the aftermath of Miley’s displays during the 2012 London Olympics, where she reached finals but missed out on any medals.
But, even as others strutted in the limelight and complacently assumed that further success would follow, there was no easing of the intense and punishing schedules to which Miley happily committed herself.
In her realm, adversity had to be tackled head-on and turned to advantage. And if it didn’t happen at one meeting, she would return to the north-east, recharge her batteries, re-set the alarm clock, and reinvigorate herself.
No wonder she was emotional when she finally announced her retirement last December at the age of 32, following 17 years of sterling, stalwart service.
As she said: “It’s a sport that I will always love and whilst I will be hanging up my racing suit, my goggles will remain in hand.
“I remember being an eight-year-old swimmer who was desperate to go to the pool and, 24 years later, that hasn’t changed. [I’ve been at] three Olympic Games, I’m a double Commonwealth champion, a world and European champion and a European record holder.
“To stand on the podium and listen to the national anthem for both Great Britain and Scotland is indescribable. It has been one hell of a ride.”
Every elite performer has to be single-minded in aiming for the stratosphere, but Miley was always a decent, dignified ambassador for swimming, the benefits of healthy exercise, and nurturing young talent at the grassroots.
As she said about gaining the opportunity to appear in the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games: “It is not just about winning medals and beating opponents, it is about championing such things as respect, and excellence, and friendship, and encouraging others to follow in your footsteps.
“Hopefully, there will be lots of youngsters throughout the world who were inspired by what they saw and decide: ‘I want to do that’, in the future.”
It’s a message which resonates as strongly today as it did in 2010 and 2014.
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