4th May 2010Olympic gold medal winner visited University of Education Heidelberg
Mike McCann, a thirty-two year old gold medal winner from the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, visited our English class today. In a fascinating interview he told us about his life as professional hockey player and coach.
When he was four years old, Mike came across with hockey in the backyard of his future coach. There he played with the coach’s old wooden hockey sticks This was the start of his career as a hockey player for Australia, which lasted over twenty years. He crowned his career with the first place in the Olympic hockey tournament at the Olympic Games in 2004 – also the first gold medal for the Oz in this sport. This victory completed the medal collection of his coach, who had already won the silver and the bronze medal at former Olympic Games. As Mike said, this was one of the most emotional moments in his life.
When we asked him whether he was an aggressive hockey player, he said that he was not more aggressive than a hockey player had to be, even though hockey is such a tough sport. Yet, in his view, hockey is not as aggressive as rugby or Australian Football.
Mike McCann retired from the international stage as a player in 2007. Today, Mike is a fulltime hockey coach at the key Club. For him it has always been hard to find the right balance between sport and private life, especially as a good player has to train at least three times a week. Nevertheless, he has enjoyed his life and met a lot of people all over the world.
