but then I saw he had the current uniform on, and the realisation dawned that he was skating in the race, defying my orders. He had set the whole thing up behind my back. Some team members knew what he was up to. I actually leapt up and started running. I took off for the track, half a mile away through a tunnel. When I surfaced I was in the middle of the arena, ready to put my arms around his throat and drag him off. He was halfway through the event, the course announcer had mentioned that this was his sixth Games, and a lot of very enthusiastic people, including the King of Sweden, were cheering him on. I was as angry as I'd ever been, really wanting to bundle him off the course. Then I calmed down, and thought ... no, I'll finish up making history, too. I didn't want to do a Percy Cerutty kind of thing, so I waited until he finished. After the race, Geoff ran on the ice without skates and reprimanded him: I told him in no uncertain terms what I thought of him. I used words I'd never normally use. As far as I was concerned, he'd skated illegally. I'd helped him a lot in his own sport, and he'd let me down. Coates wept in response. Colin then received congratulations for skating at six Olympics, including from the prime minister Bob Hawke. Geoff relented "At that point, I settled for discretion rather than valour. I stopped going crook. The man was a public hero. He did the wrong thing by me, but his was an incredible performance, and nobody could ever take that away from him." See also Australia at the Winter Olympics References External links Australia NOC Olympic Winter Institute of Australia "2002 Australian Winter Olympic Team Guide" PDF file "The Compendium: Official Australian Olympic Statistics 1896-2002" Australian Olympic Committee (Inconsistencies in sources mentioned in Wikibooks:Errata/0702234257) Australia at the games: Calgary 1988 Australian Olympic Committee web site. "Australia and the Olympic Games" by Harry Gordon. "Winter Olympic Games (15th: 1988: Calgary, Alta.). Organizing Committee. XV Olympic Games: official report" (online copy) Nations at the 1988 Winter Olympics 1988 Winter sports in Australia 1988 in Australian sport