Jarrod Poort Shattered as Bold Strategy Flops

Photo Courtesy: Simon Watts/Open Water Source

Editorial Coverage Sponsored By FINIS

By David Rieder.

Jarrod Poort had an idea. It was different, it was crazy, but if he executed his strategy, it might just pay off with his first Olympic medal.

“I hatched this plan after my qualifying race in Portugal,” Poort said. “I knew I was fit—I’d done a lot of work. Everyone trains to finish fast—no one trains to go from the start—so I thought I’d switch it around.”

And so he did. Whatever the final result of Tuesday’s men’s open water 10k race at Copacabana Beach, Poort ensured one thing early on: the 22-year-old Australian would be the name on everyone’s lips when it was over.

He sprinted from the very beginning. Poort led by more than 57 seconds over his nearest competition after one lap of the 2.5k course and then by 1:14 after two laps—while everyone else in the field was bunched within 10 seconds.

But the chase was on, and the margin was down to 40 seconds three-quarters of the way through

“I knew I’d get through 5k pretty well, the third lap would be hard, and then I thought the last lap, with a gold medal in sight, that would drive me through it,” Poort said.

A good plan, in theory. Such was not things turned out. Not even halfway into the fourth lap, Poort saw trouble in the rearview mirror.

“I knew I was in a little bit of trouble, but I tried not to second-guess myself,” he said. “You have to stay mentally strong. I was checking to try to see where they were. I tried to go a bit wide and maybe pick up a bit of current to help me.”

But with the change in direction, Poort veered off-line, and he just had nothing left in reserve. Eventual gold medalist Ferry Weertman and a collection of others soon ran down Poort, and he ended up falling all the way 21st place—out of the 23 swimmers that finished legally. Weertman ended up touching out Greece’s Spiros Gianniotis in a photo-finish.

“It’s a bummer,” Poort said. “I used a lot of heart and a lot of balls. I was hurting at the end. I could smell it—couldn’t quite taste it. Just couldn’t hang on. It’s a shame—I’m better than that.

“I laid it all on the line. I guess that’s sport—you’ve gotta take those big risks, and it was going to be a big reward, but that’s the way it is. I knew they’d be coming, and they were just too quick at the end. I just couldn’t hang in there.”

Poort was crushed with the way things turned out—“ It was a fun day at the office, but I’m pretty shattered,” he said—but he had plenty of time to accept the result as he slugged his way around the final few turn buoys. So by the time he arrived in the mixed zone, he could at least share a laugh with reporters about his gutty effort.

“Klimy (Michael Klim) always talked about the grand piano falling on him,” Poort said. “I don’t know what I had fall on me, but it was more than a grand piano. I’ll tell you that much.”

Even with the final result, Poort has no regrets for his radical approach.

“If I had a gap, I knew someone had to work freaking hard to come and catch me. I hope I made it hard for them.

Maybe he will even try the same thing again four years from now in Tokyo.

“I’ll take a big break, I’ll celebrate what was—the effort—and then start planning for 2020,” Poort said. “That’s the big one. There’s little steps in between, but that’s definitely going to be my goal, 2020.”

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Steven Munatones

7 years ago

Jarrod certainly gave it his all. But if coaches study elite competitive open water swimming over the last 10-15, years, another athletes have tried this strategy. At the highest levels of the sport, American athletes have tried it at the 2003 Barcelona World Championships, British athletes have attempted it at the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships and it has never worked. On the other hand, history tells us that making a major surge at 60-80% of the total race distance has frequently worked to (a) stretch out the lead pack, and (b) challenge other swimmers to keep up the pace. With the course at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics being held in a calm, flat water, warm bay, I think there are more effective strategies to win a gold medal in the next Olympics.

Note: Erica Rose did win the 1998 FINA championships by a similar strategy but the open water field in that race was not as deep or as fast as what Jarod faced in Rio.

Trot Nixon

7 years ago

It was entertaining AF to watch. Good on ya Jarrod you shouldn’t have any regrets.

David O'Brien

7 years ago

With so much to be gained by drafting it was a massive gamble. It made it much more entertaining though. I don’t know the bay that well but I’d be surprised if there were currents variable enough to gain from an alternative course to the straight line. Mind you if you can’t sprint then you shouldn’t wait until the shoot. At the end of the day if he sat in the pack and came 4th he would have gained much less than he did in terms of advertising. I suspect a little more endorsement money will come his way (I say little-it is swimming) and good luck to him for having a different plan.