- He competed in the Tokyo Olympics without anyone knowing.
- He was discovered during an interview after winning gold.
- It hasn’t stopped her; In fact, she is getting faster and faster.
Australian swimmer Meg Harris won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and will seek to repeat it at the Paris games, but now she has revealed that she has been hiding a big secret.
Harris has hearing loss in both ears, a fact he hid from the world until it came to light in Tokyo.
Approaching to be interviewed after her gold medal-winning swim, Harris was asked a question about her teammate Emma McKeon.
It was a bit of a shocking question given that it was at the beginning of the interview, when the focus is usually on the athlete being questioned.
Harris didn’t hear a word about it, but thought it was improvised.
“I’m very happy with how my career went,” she said confidently.
Now he can laugh about it and talk freely about his hearing loss, which has done nothing to slow him down as an athlete.
“They’re pretty similar questions when you come out, so I can understand them, just not at the time,” he said.
Meg Harris has been hiding her hearing impairment for years as a professional athlete, and that hasn’t stopped her from excelling in the pool.
Harris (left) won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in the relay and added an individual silver
The queen of billiards has had her challenges, like hearing the whistle to get on her cues and the starting gun, but she has adapted
Normally, Harris can lip-read anything the media or officials send her way. If she can’t, her colleagues will help her or even vouch for her.
To date, this hasn’t hindered him in the slightest, except in one aspect of racing: hearing the starting gun.
“It’s the only thing that really affected my swimming, everything else is fine, because you don’t need to hear to swim,” he said.
But now I can hear the starting gun, I have trained myself to hear it.
‘I used to go when everyone else went, because I was too busy listening to it.
“My reaction was always very slow, because I was listening to her, waiting for her.”
In terrifying news for his Olympic opponents, Harris’ reflexes for the starting shot are getting better.
Another challenge is knowing when it’s time to get on the blocks, which is why you’ll typically see Harris be last in position.
“Very commonly I don’t hear the whistle to go up the blocks because everyone is talking,” he said.
That said, Harris is not completely deaf and can hear perfectly well with the help of her hearing aids, but not in the pool.
‘Both ears are quite even and there is nerve damage, so they think maybe I may have had an illness at a young age; Whatever it is, it is described as moderate,” he stated.
And in a frightening admission to his opponents, his reaction times to the starting shot improve every time he competes.
‘It can be timed. When they blow the whistle, it’s usually a couple of seconds before they say “take your marks” and at that point I start to really hear the noise. It’s supposed to be silent during that time, but people still shout… but there’s always absolute silence for the gun.’