Prev
Next

It will be painful, but it’s time to set Jana Rawlinson free

Tory Maguire

by Tory Maguire

01 Jul 10:10am

Must Reads

The Punch is moving house - this is a caption

The Punch is moving house

385

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this? - this is a caption

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

122

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming” - this is a caption

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

251

Filed under: Athletics, Commonwealth Games, Jana Rawlinson, Olympics, Sport

32 comments

I can’t believe I’m saying this about the woman who had her fake breast removed for Australia, but I think it’s time we let Jana Rawlinson go from the shackles of her colonial confinement.

Insert Union Jack here. Picture: AFP

As much as the Commonwealth Games champ has showered Australia with gratitude for all the years of Woman’s Day covers and tolerance of her Olympic choking, it’s pretty clear we haven’t lived up to our end of the bargain.

Now she’s pulled out of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, it’s the perfect opportunity for us to say Jana, it breaks our hearts, but if you want to go and run for England in the London Olympics we’ll try very hard to get over it.

It’s time for us to stop being selfish and let Jana go where she’ll be properly appreciated. Britain - she’s all yours.

Most commented

32 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • David says:

      10:30am | 01/07/10

      Thanks for everything Jana. Don’t let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      10:35am | 01/07/10

      I don’t care for whom she runs, as long as it is away.

      Reply

    • Nicole says:

      11:01am | 01/07/10

      Hear Hear iansand. And very very far. Now I shall pick myself off the ground, because for once I agreed with you.

    • expat says:

      10:43am | 01/07/10

      Wow, seems like it bothers you a great deal !

      But at least admit your hypocrisy.
      So it is bad to lure top athletes from overseas, is that what you trying to say?

      Aussies do not mind when Russians Kostya Tszyu and Anastasia Rodionova, Canadian Dale Beggs-Smith and countless others bring some fame and publicity Down Under. But God forbid when it works other way around?

      This country has special immigration/citizenship process for elite sports figures and after that you dare to question Jana’s career decisions?

      Reply

    • Adam MacLeod says:

      11:11am | 01/07/10

      I think the point is to remind us that many of these elite athletes do what they do for themselves, not for their country.  Which is fair enough really. 

      We don’t shed tears when they decide to leave.  We certainly don’t claim Dale Begg-Smith as an Australian.  And we don’t care if they win or lose.

    • msyd says:

      11:16am | 01/07/10

      sorry expat, but I don’t think Jana’s career choices are the issue. I think there’s a few people just over all the jana-dramas and the stream of “look at me”.

      I wish her well. Hope it all works out and that she enjoys every success. Bon voyage, toodle-oo, all the best, ciao, sayonara, adios, just don’t let the door hit your .......

    • Flutter says:

      02:04pm | 02/07/10

      Speak for yourself Adam, I certainly do claim Dale Begg-Smith as an Australian because guess what?  HE IS!!!!

      As for Jana, I’m not bothered by her wanting to compete for GB (despite the fact she can’t - not before 2013 anyway).  I prefer to support athletes who WANT to represent our country - as those athletes who have left Russia, Canada and a number of other countries to compete for Australia WANT to do.  Besides, Jana has achieved some quite good results in a very difficult discipline, but I truly believe that she is way past her best anyway.

    • DG says:

      11:00am | 01/07/10

      she must have had a horrific few years in her life

      whats the go with the breast enlargement and then a short time later they are taken out?

      poor thing must be very very muddled and confused in life, men, health and now ...country!

      whats the issue- if she wants to go, then let her go.

      Reply

    • AdamC says:

      11:16am | 01/07/10

      Worst media-managed athlete ever! Someone call Max Markson - even a Bingle Bungle would be an improvement on Jana’s current image-management efforts.

      I say go to the UK and make a fresh start - on I’m a Celebrity, Get me out of Here!

      Reply

    • Liz says:

      01:51pm | 01/07/10

      Even Max Markson doesn’t want to know about her.

    • CJ says:

      11:22am | 01/07/10

      Poor Jana, she’s just another tall poppy who has done nothing but try her best to please us all…

      PS The breast thing was odd, but I think she did the same with her hubby too - she divorced him, then they got married again. This woman needs to make up her bloody mind!!

      Reply

    • acker says:

      11:50am | 01/07/10

      And picked up a handy annual allowance from the Australian Government to help her donate her time to it.

    • Vicki PS says:

      05:08pm | 01/07/10

      Yes, talk about tacky—a big formal renewal of vows ceremony and all.  There is something seriously awry with this woman, but it’s remarkable only because she’s an elite athlete.  I wish to god this country would get over its obsession with winning in sports, and stop wasting taxpayer’s money subsidising the careers of these highly paid professsional entertainers.

    • Super D says:

      11:35am | 01/07/10

      It’s painful every time her name is mentioned.

      Reply

    • shitesherlock says:

      12:01pm | 01/07/10

      What if she changes her mind and wants to come back to Oz? I’m just glad it won’t be me making that decision!

      Reply

    • Anjuli says:

      12:42pm | 01/07/10

      So what ,tennis players from other countries are playing for Australia.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      12:43pm | 01/07/10

      Can we get Jelena Dokic on the same boat as Jana?

      Reply

    • Brad Coward says:

      01:05pm | 01/07/10

      Jana Rawlinson has been a sporting B-lister for most of her career.  If she’d spent less time bitching about everyone being against her and more time actually achieving something on the track, she could have been the A-lister that early indications showed she would be.

      She may have withdrawn from the Commonwealth Games as a competitor, but I expect that she will feel the need to bitch to the press about all that she would have done had she been there.

      Good bye, good luck and good riddance to you !

      Reply

    • S.L says:

      01:21pm | 01/07/10

      Who cares! What has she ever won against real competition? Let her compete for the Brits. Her feud with Tamsin Lewis was just a battle of 2 boat anchors compared to the Jamaicans and African Americans anyway.

      Reply

    • Mayday says:

      01:44pm | 01/07/10

      There was mention of Jana receiving $500,000 over the last ten years from the Australian Government, $50,000 per annum to train and run around a track?
      There was also talk of having our elite athletes repay the money just like all
      University students have to repay their HECS debt.
      Considering some sports people earn a lot of money from their chosen career repaying it would seem the least they can do.
      I would rather subsidise a doctor, nurse, vet etc any day and I wonder when the public will wake up to the rorts these top earners receive and insist they repay tax payers money?

      Reply

    • Nicole says:

      10:16am | 02/07/10

      Absolutely agree with you, Mayday. I was appalled when I found out they don’t have to repay their HECS debt - I plan to work in mental health when I graduate from my psychology degree, but somehow the government thinks I should have to pay them back the thousands I borrowed while someone who runs around a track for a living doesn’t. This article pretty much sums it up: http://www.vivauni.com.au/a-sporting-chance/

    • Athletics Fan says:

      01:50pm | 01/07/10

      She has had appalling, inept management if any at all.  She won a genuine world title which in itself is magnificent and very rare for an Australian to do so.  The whinging is because very few of us like, or understand Athletics. It is not trivail entertainment and not like the sports we mainly follow which are just media spack filler, entertainment with hollow competitions and of no consequence.  Jana pitted herself against the best in the world, no team to cover failures, just her body’s natural ability trained to within a quiet groan of snapping.  As to running for England, from the comments I can’t blame her and I am sure it is only the long qualifying period that stops her.  She is a gifted athlete, not an entertainer.

      Reply

    • fish says:

      02:08pm | 01/07/10

      Who also thought that getting a breast enlargement would help her running (Duh?)

    • DG says:

      03:48pm | 01/07/10

      Re Fish

      the improved bumps mean better airflow around her!

      there was a story they were also Helium filled too- makes her lighter on her feet!

    • Athletics Fan says:

      04:18pm | 01/07/10

      If you poked your head through the church vestibule doors recently you might have seen that enhancements are quite common in society (including athletes) and I make no judgement.  Again, her management have not guided her at all well, she is an athlete not a particle physicist.

    • Horthy says:

      08:04pm | 01/07/10

      “The whinging is because very few of us like, or understand Athletics”

      Yes, yes, my sport is better than your sport. Of course it is. We don’t understand it. You talk of sport as consequence for goodness sake!

      I don’t care who she runs for, so I don’t understand athletics? Please.

      Oh, and if she’s not an entertainer, let’s get that money back and pay for someone’s medical education.

    • SM says:

      02:14pm | 01/07/10

      what a job Jana and her “management” people have done

      with just a little bit of humility she could have been adored by the Australian public

      Reply

    • KM says:

      02:19pm | 01/07/10

      Just another instalment in the Jana Rawlinson, “Its all about me story” Good bye and please don’t come back.
      Im sick to death of see you in the headlines complaining about how life has dealt you a bad hand, or making excuses for your poor performance… and it just not fair, wont someone feel sorry for me……. Boohoo. BYE

      Reply

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      02:52pm | 01/07/10

      Who, for all that we hold sacred, is Jana Rawlinson?

      Reply

    • pipster says:

      04:01pm | 01/07/10

      Yes farewell Jana, no love lost there. Can we just get some of the investment back that we’ve put into her training and development ....

      Reply

    • Steve_of_Cornubia says:

      08:55pm | 01/07/10

      I’m no Rawlinson fan, but for the sale of balance, are we going to be equally derisive of those athletes born overseas who decide to join the Australian team? Let’s face it, there are few sports in Australia that could get by nearly so well without the multitude of ‘Australians’ who moved here only to compete.

      Reply

    • fifo says:

      10:15pm | 01/07/10

      Can we get Lay-Down Sally to carry her bags??

      Reply
 
Sorry, comments are now closed for this article.

Facebook Recommendations

Read all about it

Punch live

Up to the minute Twitter chatter

Malcolm Farr

farrm51 18 May 13 04:27PM

@wheels002 @janecat60 Prefer your son's excellent turtle.

Malcolm Farr

farrm51 18 May 13 04:20PM

“@JoeHockey_MP: Expect #insiders to be a doddle tomorrow." @latingle @dwabriz& I can't agree whether to call u genius or genius AND saint.

Daniel Piotrowski

drpiotrowski 18 May 13 03:12PM

@Rob_Stott ... But don't go to Awaba unless you're a local because they'll treat you like a subhuman

Malcolm Farr

farrm51 18 May 13 12:04PM

Some people are so worried re sexuality of others hard not to think they might have probs with their own . http://t.co/c2Lvg3FJP0

See all tweets

Recent posts

The latest and greatest

The Punch is moving house

by The Punch Team

385

The Punch is moving house

Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

by Hannah Harborow

122

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

by Sarrah Le Marquand

251

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual…

Nosebleed Section

choice ringside rantings

From: Hasbro, go straight to gaol, do not pass go

Tim says:

They should update other things in the game too. Instead of a get out of jail free card, they should have a Dodgy Lawyer card that not only gets you out of jail straight away but also gives you a fat payout in compensation for daring to arrest you in the first place. Instead of getting a hotel when you… [read more]

From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn’t go

Kel says:

If you want a festival for older people or for families alike, get amongst the respectable punters at Bluesfest. A truly amazing festival experience to be had of ALL AGES. And all the young "festivalgoers" usually write themselves off on the first night, only to never hear from them again the rest of… [read more]

Light weight

Gentle jabs to the ribs

Superman needs saving

Superman needs saving

Can somebody please save Superman? He seems to be going through a bit of a crisis. Eighteen months ago,… Read more

28 comments

Newsletter

Read all about it

Sign up to the free News.com.au newsletter