women we love: anna meares and sally mclellan

We Errol girls are All About Love.  And we hate it when we hear whinging about Aussies only winning minor medals in the Olympics.  God forbid you’re the second or third best in the world.  ONLY SECOND IN THE WORLD. SECOND OUT OF SIX BILLION? UNACCEPTABLE! Hang your heads in shame, bitches! 

Combine that with the fact most of us have trouble making it up the stairs to the front door after a night out* – let alone doing anything vaguely sporty - and it’s probably not surprising we think Anna Meares and Sally McLellan are completely bloody amazing. 

It’s not just because they are incredible athletes, because they are determined, or because they’ve both just won silver medals at these Olympics.  Not because Anna Meares now has one gold, one silver and one bronze in Olympic cycling and has made me cry when she won each one of them. 

Not even because the incredible Anna also recovered from a horrible race fall and near paraplegia seven months ago to win that medal.  (I’m totally about to cry again writing this).  SHE’S JUST REALLY INSPIRATIONAL, OK?

We love them because … well, because they are adorable.  Unaffected, joyful, honest, brash, humble, hilarious and totally Aussie.  I started loving Sally the second Channel 7 tried to give her the ‘you must be so shocked that you fluked yourself into the finals’ edit and she basically told them to piss off.  I enjoyed that.

Michael Dodge/www.foxsports.com.au

But then she went and almost combusted with joy when her place was announced, and gave us one of the best post-race interviews you’ll ever see:

OH MY GOD IS THIS REAL?  YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. 

DID YOU SEE ME?  DID YOU SEE ME? 

DID YOU SEE HOW PUMPED I WAS?  I WAS MORE PUMPED THAN I HAVE EVER BEEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE.  SHIT! 

I COULD SEE A GIRL PASSING ME BUT I JUST KEPT RUNNING MY OWN RACE. AMAZING.  I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. 

SHIT!

By my count she said ‘shit’ about eight times.  On international television.  In front of billions of viewers.  WE LOVE YOU SALLY! 

I can’t decide whether Sally’s stream of consciousness swearing is cuter, or the fact that Anna used the phrase kitchen sink to sum up her Olympic experience.

I went to the final in with the attitude ‘I’m going to throw the kitchen sink, so I hope you’ve got big shoulders’. But man, she threw the kitchen sink at me!

Kitchen sink!  Awesome.  And how do you feel, Anna darlin? 

Absolutely SMASHED.  But you know what: I feel so good.  For all I care that silver medal could be gold.

So happy!  So cute!  So anyone start bagging them and you’ll have five fiesty Errol girls, two interns and one naked, enthusiastic work experience boy to deal with.  I also have a mean right hook, if you’re wondering.

* Emma is, of course, the exception to this. She does the sports on behalf of all of us, and when she gets home from a night out, bounds up the stairs like a lively kangaroo. A well-dressed, drunk, lively kangaroo.