A ‘soft’ gold medal: does such a thing exist?

Charlesworth says rugby sevens gold medal is 'soft' #RicCharlesworth https://t.co/mpXnO8jgcI pic.twitter.com/8nAAeALnU3

— Australia Trends (@australizer) August 9, 2016

By David Jordan

After the Aussie women’s rugby sevens team took out gold on day three in Rio, the country roundly celebrated a fantastic victory in the fledgling Olympic sport.

Well, almost all of the country. Former Hockeyroos and Kookaburras coach Ric Charlesworth took a different line, telling the ABC that he saw the sport as “a soft event.”

“I think the women’s rugby sevens is a soft event whereas the men’s is a much more competitive event and gives a country like Fiji a chance at the Olympics, and that’s wonderful,” he said.

Charlesworth was quickly rounded on in social media, and rightly so. If the Olympics was easy, if qualifying was easy, then everybody would be there.

Charlesworth has done a lot for Australian sport in the past, and is responsible for much of Australian hockey’s success over the past two decades. But to use his stature to question the efforts and success of those in another sport is an abuse of his position.

Rather than be up-in-arms about the nature of the competition, Charlesworth would be better off taking a good look at what is happening with the hockey teams at the Olympics.

The world number one-ranked Kookaburras have lost two of their opening three games, while the number three-ranked Hockeyroos lost their first matches. Both teams must win all their remaining games to keep themselves in the fight for progression.