Olympic excitement is on a brief hiatus today. Olympians have been crowned right and left and we are near the end of the selection processes. Therefore, it’s crunch time for competitors in the halls of the gym.
While covering trampoline stories of Olympic triumph over the past few weeks, I discovered delightful sub-stories along the way. One of which I completely missed when I posted a photo and its description from Dr. Ben Kelly in the Canada and Australia Nationals blogpost on May 27th. It was brought to my attention on Facebook when former Australian Trampoline team member Geramy Spehar made an astute observation. He asked, “Did you say Adrian Wareham … still competing? … can’t be.” I actually noticed his name with the photo too, but also thought “Can’t be” and just brushed it off.
Turns out, it absolutely can be! The great Aussie Champion from the 80s and 90s, Adrian Wareham, is still competing after all these years. As a matter of fact, this year the 47 year-old gymnast just competed in his 40th Australian National Trampoline and Tumbling Championships. Over the span of his career, he won twelve Australian National Individual Men’s Trampoline titles. His father, David Wareham, has always been his coach. He has competed in eleven World Trampoline Championships. For ten consecutive years between 1987-96 he won all his disciplines; Individual Trampoline, Synchro and DMT at the Australian National Championships. He did it again in 2000. Internationally, he has two DMT World Championships titles and a bronze medal in Individual Trampoline. He has broken records all over the place.
Today, Adrian is a physical education teacher and a father of three. That would be enough for most of us. But way down under, far away from the limelight, Adrian just keeps on keeping on.
BTW – On June 2nd, he finished 8th in the 2012 Australian Nationals in Senior Men’s Trampoline event at Sydney Olympic Park. Not bad.
(Photos of Adrian are nearly impossible to find. But, in the photo above, he is the second to last gymnast in the line. The pic is from the recent Australian Nationals in Sydney)
Here’s a good photo to compliment a great article – http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=455185671203&set=o.136672103036450&type=3&theater
WOW, Well done Adrian ! You are an inspiration to us all!! Birmingham, Alabama 1988 competition was pretty good but Cobbing’s party was GREAT! What a great PE teacher you must be. Happy trails to you!
I remember that party in Birmingham – a total riot that was cut short by security then masterfully rejuvenated by the legendary razza cobbing. Adrian was, at least back in those days always creeping up and threatening Brett Austine’s stake tramp fame. As one of the younger guys back then, we all looked up to this sort of brat-pack of older guys throwing 13.0 routines (in the old scoring system) names like Adrian Wareham, Brett Austine, John Merrit and Steve Evetts. These guys would get up and every person on the crowd would stop what they were doing. Whatever they were doing and you’d feel the tension in the air. Inspirational by talent alone, each one of these guys were also some of the nicest guys a younger ambitious kid could meet…and not to forget, total nutters too!
I hope Adrian knows how he has inspired so many!
Adrian truly is a inspiration. To compete at an international level for almost 30 years is an absolutely amazing achievement. And we are not talking about a sport that only requires skill, this is physical to the extreme. Multiple triple somersaults, twisting double somersaults, all in combinations that would have your average 20 year old gasping for breath and lucky to be alive.
Adrian, you are a champ my friend and I promise that everything that happened on tour, stays on tour.
John Merritt