Sink or Swim transcript

Reporter: Jim Wilson
Producer: Paul Waterhouse

JIM WILSON: Did you dabble in illicit drugs?

Geoff Huegill: Oh look Jim you know when you’re caught up in that whole world, in that lifestyle, it’s always floating around.

JIM WILSON: Geoff Huegill has been to a bad place. In fact, he’s been to a lot of bad places.

Geoff Huegill: It becomes part and parcel of being caught up in that whole world.

JIM WILSON: At his lowest he was massively obese, wallowing in booze and fast food.

This champion swimmer was sinking.

Did you contemplate suicide?

Geoff Huegill: Yes definitely. I think it was always trickling in the back of my mind somewhere.

JIM WILSON: Until one woman changed his life.

Did you ever think you would walk out that door and not come back?

Sara Hills: No, never, never.

JIM WILSON: We grew up with Geoff Huegill. He was Skippy, the talented larrikin of Australian swimming.

Winner of five Commonwealth Gold medals, an Olympic Silver and Bronze, and eight world records in seven years, Geoff Huegill was the butterfly powerhouse of the pool.

Some kids love football, what was it about the black line, chasing that black line in the pool?

Geoff Huegill: Swimming’s in my blood. I mean I started swimming at the age of three and started doing club nights from the age of four. I grew up in Queensland and in 1984 I remember seeing Johnno Seebohn swim for gold in the 200m butterfly in LA and I remember saying to myself at the age of five, that’s what I wanted to do, I wanted to swim for Australia and go to an Olympic Games.

JIM WILSON: Seven years later, his Dad, his biggest supporter, collapsed from a heart attack.

Ron Huegill was 55. He died in Geoff’s arms.

Can you take us through that night?

Geoff Huegill: My father had been very sick and I remember telling him the great news that I was going away for my first age nationals. And then I saw him walk into the bathroom and from there a couple of minutes later he collapsed in the shower. I had to ring the ambulance and unfortunately my Dad passed away.

As a 12-year-old kid those memories stick in your mind pretty vividly, it’s like it only happened yesterday.

JIM WILSON: Did you have time to grieve your father’s loss?

Geoff Huegill: As a young teenager you don’t know how to grieve and swimming was my only out, and that’s the only way I got through the tough times.

JIM WILSON: After his father died, Geoff moved out of the family home in Mackay to live with his coach Ken Wood in Brisbane and he trained his heart out.

Then, the rewards came.

At the Sydney Olympics, Huegill snatched a Bronze in the 100m Butterfly and a Silver in the Medley Relay. Two years later he was the star of the Commonwealth Games, winning three gold medals.

In Athens in 2004, came Geoff’s best chance for that elusive Olympic Gold.

But Huegill bombed, finishing last. Soon after he quit the sport.

Were you lost after Athens?

Geoff Huegill: Oh completely, completely lost after Athens.

Knowing that you’re winding down on your career at the age of 25 when for everyone else their career is taking off at 25, so not having a support structure in place that I should’ve had was definitely quite depressing. For a large part of my life I had structure and the moment I took that structure away that’s when I started going in a downward spiral.

JIM WILSON: After a life of discipline, all the rules went out the window.

Geoff Huegill: So instead of going to the pool at 4am I was staying up till 4am, and instead of eating the healthy foods I tended to stray to the fast foods and the alcohol.

JIM WILSON: Booze?

Geoff Huegill: Yeah it was something that was a comfort factor I think.

JIM WILSON: Did it numb the pain?

Geoff Huegill: Yeah for a long time it did, but it’s not an excuse.

JIM WILSON: So began the lost years.

So these are familiar spots? Which ones did you usually frequent, was it various ones around here? Was this your stomping ground?

Geoff Huegill: Oh, any and all of them Jim. You know it would depend on the crowd I was with. It’s a world that can tear you apart and tear you down.

JIM WILSON: Was it tied in with delayed grieving for losing your dad? You turned everything towards the pool when you were 12, was this coming back and biting you on the backside so to speak?

Geoff Huegill: That was part of it, and a lot of it was that in the pool I was such a success but outside of the pool everything I touched just fell apart.

JIM WILSON: Did you suffer from depression?

Geoff Huegill: For a while absolutely, I was pretty depressed.

JIM WILSON: Was it dark?

Geoff Huegill: Oh very dark, to step away from all of that that life and to realise I had nothing in place was very depressing.

JIM WILSON: Geoff lost his self respect and most of his money.

How low did you get?

Geoff Huegill: I pretty much hit rock bottom Jim to tell you the truth, I lost it all.

JIM WILSON: Did you contemplate suicide?

Geoff Huegill: The thought always crossed my mind. No doubt about that. Yeah you always look at taking the easy option out.

JIM WILSON: I want to go somewhere we haven’t been and that’s when booze, the party scene, one of the big things in society has been drugs and illicit drugs, did you dabble in illicit drugs?

Geoff Huegill: Oh look Jim I think you know when you’re caught up in that whole world in that lifestyle it’s always floating around, I’m not going to go into details of how specific my nights got.

JIM WILSON: But let’s face it illicit drugs were there, they were on offer?

Geoff Huegill: They were floating around with everyone and it becomes part and parcel of being caught up in that world.

JIM WILSON: That world, it can gobble you up can’t it?

Geoff Huegill: Yeah it gobbles you up quick smart.

JIM WILSON: Did you like that person that you were?

Geoff Huegill: Definitely not, I hated the person I was looking into the mirror at every single day.

JIM WILSON: How do you get yourself out of that?

Geoff Huegill: Day by day. I was quite fortunate that I met an amazing girl and started to realise your end game and I knew what direction I was going in my life.

JIM WILSON: It was in 2007 that Huegill met fashion publicist Sara Hills, at Brisbane’s GPO bar.

She was 23 and on a night out with mates. It turned into a memorable evening.

Sara Hills: One of my friends noticed him and said, ‘Oh my god he has put on a bit of weight.’ And then I skipped over and had a bit of a chat and then…

Geoff Huegill: Then we caught up after that and that was it.

JIM WILSON: The two exchanged numbers and at midnight parted company. Four hours later a drunk Huegill jumped a taxi queue and was arrested by police for obstruction and assault.

Geoff Huegill: I was in a drunk and disorderly state, so yeah I have to take responsibility for that.

JIM WILSON: You got put in the back of a divvy van?

Geoff Huegill: That’s right.

JIM WILSON: Remember that?

Geoff Huegill: I do remember that. Then taken back to the watch-house then I slept it off and the moment I woke up, reality hit that’s for sure.

Sara Hills: Mum was like, “How was your night?” Because I was still living at home. And I was like, “Yeah it was great, I met so and so”, and she was like, “Oh yeah just be careful there”. And then I was so worried, I saw it on the news and I thought shivers, what happened that night?

JIM WILSON: Three months on, and now a couple, Geoff and Sara moved to Sydney. It was supposed to be a new beginning but Geoff fell into old habits.
His bloated appearance became the talk of the town.

JIM WILSON: Were you worried about him?

Sara Hills: Yeah very worried, you know he was quite depressed and had trouble believing in himself and remembering the man he was and what he has in him.

JIM WILSON: Did you ever walk out that door thinking I’m not coming back?

Sara Hills: No, never, never.

Geoff Huegill: I was quite lucky.

JIM WILSON: 138 kilos.

Geoff Huegill: Yeah, solid. When I walked away from the sport I really walked away from everything. I really enjoyed life for what it was. When you look at the pictures I enjoyed it for what it was. I went through a bit of a medical check up and his (the doctor’s) words were, “You’ve lived the last couple of years as the good life, you’ve got to take care of yourself again, otherwise you are going to have a heart attack”.

I realised I wasn’t wasting my own life but also the people that really cared for me. I got back into the pool and from there it grew.

JIM WILSON: It took 700 days.

Geoff Huegill: Seven hundred days to stand behind the block so it was, yeah it was worth the fight.

JIM WILSON: You lost 45 kilos in three years?

Geoff Huegill: Yeah.

JIM WILSON: The comeback was on. Last month Huegill entered the Australian Championships, qualified for October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

After so many wasted years, few thought he could do it.

Geoff Huegill: I remember walking out to the blocks and just being confident to have that moment to show my family and those that really cared, I was doing it for the right reasons, it was just one of the best feelings in the world.

The gun went and I had an awesome start and awesome under water and a great breakout and after 10 strokes I took my first breath and my head was down from there so it was another eight strokes to the end of the wall.

JIM WILSON: Huegill’s time of 23.46 seconds was just 200ths of a second slower than the world record he set in 2001.

Sara Hills: How the hell could he have swum so friggin’ fast and won, like, I just couldn’t believe he had won. I was hysterical, balling my eyes out.

JIM WILSON: Did you do a double take when you saw him on the blocks at 93 kilos?

Sara Hills: I know, he looked pretty damn awesome.

JIM WILSON: Would you be here right at this point in time on the plane to Delhi without this woman?

Geoff Huegill: No, definitely not. No way, I definitely wouldn’t be here without Sara.

JIM WILSON: Out of the pool Geoff’s life has also turned around. He’s now an ambassador for Australia’s Youth Fit program and if you happen to catch this sharp looking bloke walking down a city street, most likely he’s on his way to inspire the top end of town.

It’s a long way from rock bottom.

JIM WILSON: Redemption’s sweet.

Geoff Huegill: Yeah redemption’s sweet. I think it’s also a part of everyone’s life that we all go through. Everyone’s human, we all trip over our own feet and make mistakes but it’s about how you pick yourself up and dust yourself off and to have the courage to be able to stand up there and say you’re going to chase that goal or I want to go after that dream and do whatever it takes to get there is probably I think how a man should be measured.