Sporting Nation Episode #1.1 (Season 1, Episode 1)
TV Episode | 55 min | Documentary

Sporting Nation

Episode #1.1 (Season 1, Episode 1)

TV Episode | 55 min | Documentary

Post-war prosperity in Australia was accompanied by a golden age of international sporting achievement. Gideon Haigh and Bob Hawke tell us about the genesis of this era in Australian sport. The Melbourne Olympics in 1956 was the big bang ...See morePost-war prosperity in Australia was accompanied by a golden age of international sporting achievement. Gideon Haigh and Bob Hawke tell us about the genesis of this era in Australian sport. The Melbourne Olympics in 1956 was the big bang in the relationship between sport and Australian culture and identity. Legends were created left, right and centre. This was the classical age in Australian sport, characterised by pure natural talent, supreme physical fitness and mental toughness. Its apotheosis is Herb Elliott. Elliott won every mile and every 1500m race he ever competed in, finishing with a world record victory in the 1500m at the 1960 Rome Olympics. After the triumphs of Herb Elliott and others at the Rome Olympics, Australia cemented an international reputation and generated a national mythology based on geography and sport. But our confidence was accompanied by hubris. Australian sports administration at the time was based on the theory that our sporting talent was God-given and all you had to do was turn up. It was this thinking that ended Dawn Fraser's career after winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics. With the Vietnam War at its height, race riots across America and the world becoming a more dangerous place, Ralph Doubell withstood the challenges that beset the Mexico Olympics in 1968 and Shane Gould describes the triumph amidst a terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In the next few years it was clear that the age of innocence was dead and Australian sport was in trouble. See less

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Cast	+ Add Cast
16 cast members

Name	Known for
John Clarke Self Self See fewer	The Games (1998)
Raelene Boyle Self Self See fewer	Yum Cha (2008)
Margaret Court Self Self See fewer	Smashing Lady (1971)
Joy Damousi Self Self See fewer	Sporting Nation (2012)
Ralph Doubell Self Self See fewer	Champion: The Franz Stampfl Story
Herb Elliott Self Self See fewer	Sporting Nation (2012)
Dawn Fraser Self Self See fewer	New York Decalogue (2011)
Malcolm Fraser Self Self See fewer	The Norman Gunston Show (1975)
Harry Gallagher Self Self See fewer	Hot Property (2016)
Bob Hawke Self Self See fewer	A Country Practice (1981)
Marjorie Jackson Self Self See fewer	Beauty on Parade (1950)
Nicole Livingstone Self Self See fewer	Wide World of Sports (1981)
Hugh McKay Self Self See fewer	Sporting Nation (2012)
Heather McKay Self Self See fewer	Double Negative (1980)
Murray Rose Self Self See fewer	Ice Station Zebra (1968)
Peter Thomson Self Self See fewer	Spirit of the Open (2009)