The brutal media critique of swimmer Liesel Jones on the eve of her record fourth Olympics was a typical example of society's tendency to chew up and spit out its heroes once it deems them to be no longer useful.
Using as its evidence grossly unflattering photographs of Jones in her swimmers, the media suggested she wasn't fit to compete in the games, and that she was taking a taxpayer-funded holiday to London before retiring from competition.
When a public outcry over this treatment of Jones ensued, the outlets ran with the story's momentum, analysing it from new angles, polling readers on their opinions of Jones' physique, and losing no opportunity to republish the offensive pictures.
Jones chose to ignore the attack — officially, at least — but if it dented her confidence she may well have taken strength from Australia's first ever international sports champion, a man who found himself down and out and all but forgotten once his form began to fade.
Edward Trickett went from being the most popular person in Australia — people would stop to acknowledge his portrait, which had been affixed to lamp posts in Sydney — to contemplating suicide as he lay in a gutter.
Years earlier, on 27 June 1876, he had been crowned World Champion Sculler when he beat Englishman James H. Sadler on the Thames, rowing the Putney to Mortlake course in 24 minutes and 36 seconds, and becoming the first Australian to win a world championship in any sport.
'No-one had ever beaten an Englishman in rowing,' says Kent Mayo, curator of the McCrossin's Mill Museum in Uralla in NSW, which has in its collection Trickett memorabilia. 'Edward Trickett, the corn stalk from New South Wales, beat the world champion to become Australia's first ever international sporting champion.'
When Trickett arrived back in Sydney, 25,000 fans turned out to greet him.
He successfully defended his title for five years, not even faltering when his hand was crushed by a keg of beer, causing him to lose several fingers. He was eventually beaten by the Canadian sculler, Ned Hanlan, and retired from rowing to become a hotelier and publican in Rockhampton.
But the Great Depression of the 1890s was setting in, and Trickett's star had begun to fade. 'He moved