GEOFF HUEGILL: Be Your Best

Published by Random House

IN the year that followed the Athens Olympics 2004, Geoff slowly lost the will to win that had made him such an amazing competitor. In 2005 he quit, leaving behind an impressive legacy. Dual Olympic silver and bronze medallist, five-time world champion, eight-time world record holder and five-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. He was just 26.

For the next two years Geoff rediscovered a life outside of swimming and he hit it hard – the clubbing, drinking and eating took its toil and he packed on the weight, some 45 kilos, in a short period of time.

By 2007 he had hit rock bottom and was struggling to lose the weight, but then one fateful night he met his wife to be, Sara Hills – it was also a night that involved being arrested by the police. These were the two events that precipitated his determination to get the weight off and keep it off and start to rebuild his life.

Another chance meeting with his mentor, Keith Saggers, brought meaning and focus back into his life and they formed a partnership for the Be-Your-Best Now! coaching system. Part of this process was Geoff getting back into swimming and his come-back was set into motion.

THEN FROM ZERO TO HERO

In this book, Geoff extensively details how he lost the weight and changed his mind-set, while using the tenets of his new-found philosophy, Be-Your-Best Now!

The rest, as they say, is history in the making at the Commonwealth Games, Delhi October 2010.

Skippy Geoff Huegill makes it the best race of his life!!!!!!

EIGHT years after he won his last Commonwealth title, Geoff Huegill did it all for himself and his country last night.

• It also came six years after any male Australian swimmer last won an individual Olympic or Commonwealth Games gold medal.
• It’s statistically true that the man they call Skippy swam the best race of his life in the 100m butterfly final. His time, 51.69sec, was easily the fastest he has ever swum and astonishingly places him, at 31, second in the world this year behind the greatest swimmer of all time, American Michael Phelps.
• But the glowing numbers on the electronic scoreboard weren’t required to calibrate the worth of this swim.
• Here he was, possibly at the crossroads of his career, possibly at the end, facing the Kenyan swimmer who in recent times has become his nemesis, Jason Dunford, the man who beat him for the 50m butterfly gold two nights ago.
• Lose and retirement became his most likely course of action, win and suddenly the 2012 London Olympics wouldn’t look quite so far away.
• From the moment he exited the blocks in 0.65sec, the fastest any swimmer in the field got into action, Huegill was a man on a mission. Realising that if he could be up with sprint specialist Dunford at the turn, he would have the staying power to bring it home, he turned barely .03sec behind his arch-rivals.
• From that moment, the last 50m turned into a victory lap as Huegill stretched his wings and showed why he has been compared with the legends of his stroke, Pablo Morales and Mary T. Meagher.
• In the end, he pulled away, leaving his nearest rivals, Papua New Guinean Ryan Pini and England’s Anthony James – the joint silver medallists – trailing almost a full second behind in his wake, with Dunford, his job as the race rabbit seemingly done, fading to fourth. The weight off Huegill’s mind as he pumped the air in triumph was surely the equal of the weight he has shed from his waistline over the past three years – a massive 45kg. His incandescent smile lit up the pool. The most ambitious of comebacks had just yielded the most audacious and astonishing of dividends.
• “Look, it’s been awesome,” Huegill said.
• “I woke up today. I had a great sleep last night, almost nine hours and then a massage this morning and just felt good in the water.”

Two golds and a silver were testament to Geoff’s determination, grit and living by the principles he and Keith espouse in their Be-Your-Best Now! program.

Geoff’s next goal is to race at the Olympics in London, armed with the insights and lessons learned – it’s not hard to picture him on that winner’s podium yet again.

Geoff Huegill is available for interviews.