Vale Wayne Smith – Friend of Olympic sports

Australian sport, including those organisations aligned to the Olympic movement, lost a great friend and ally with the sudden passing of Wayne Smith at his home on the Queensland Sunshine Coast.

Smith was 69, and he leaves behind for all of sport lovers a lifetime’s worth of work that was generated by his passion for sport, his journalistic drive and integrity, an instinct for a good story, and a healthy dose of curiosity.

His extensive volume of writing tells an exceptional tale of a talented journalist whose capacity to use words to beautifully capture the moments that mattered was equally matched by his ability to regularly hunt down a back page story.

Upon learning of his passing the athletes and sporting administrators who became his friends fondly remembered Smith as his ‘own man.’ That is,  a journalist who wrote the truth without fear or favour – but always fair and respectful.

The award-winning Smith entered journalism as a 17 year old cadet in 1971. During his five-decade career with The Courier-Mail, The Australian and – most recently -The Sydney Morning Herald, he forged an enviable reputation, enjoying widespread respect from both his readers and those in the ‘game’ for his coverage of swimming, Olympic sport, rugby union, and cricket.

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) chairman, Gary Flowers, described Smith’s passing as a terrible loss.

‘Wayne Smith was very much the doyen of sports journalists,” said Mr Flowers.

“Whether it was covering rugby, swimming, the Olympics, or cricket, Wayne brought his unique blend of professionalism, insight, passion, and objective analysis to bear.

“Importantly, he did this with a sense of humanity which endeared him to all those with whom he interacted.

“Wayne will be sorely missed, and we at NSWIS extend our heartfelt condolences to his family.”

Olympic champion Susie O’Neill recalled Smith as a journalist who appreciated what the athletes went through to perform. And that he also cared deeply for the sports and athletes he covered.

“He just knew the sport inside out,” Ms O’Neill told The Sydney Morning Herald. “He was around it all the time, he didn’t just fly in and fly out when there was an Olympics happening. It made such a huge difference … I don’t think he ever wrote a bad word about me.

“He knew how much training we did, the effort it took, the sacrifices we made, all of the details. That’s what I think of when I think of Wayne Smith.”

Another Olympic swimming champion, Kieran Perkins, now the chief executive of the Australian Sports Commission and Australian Institute of Sport, described Smith as a person with great integrity and dignity.

“He frames the greatest moments of my career but on the flipside, when there was controversy or challenge, we had our moments of butting heads but what I can say about Wayne … even the bad headlines, I could not argue it wasn’t correct.,” said Mr Perkins.

“He absolutely had an integrity and a dignity of engagement with us, that you always knew where you stood.”

Smith’s personal contribution to the Olympics will be celebrated in 2032 when his home city of Brisbane hosts the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was a source of great personal pride to Smithy that he suggested, in a 2015 telephone call to Town Hall and a subsequent newspaper column, for the Brisbane Lord Mayor to push for the Games.

IOC vice president, John Coates, said it “filled him with sadness” to think Smith won’t be at those Games.

“Not only did he reside in the pantheon of the great sports writers this country has produced, his lobbying for the Brisbane Games with the Council of Mayors Southeast Queensland was a catalyst for those Games that are now coming to our shores,”  Mr Coates told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“It fills me with sadness that he won’t be there to proudly witness the reality he envisioned.”