The Commonwealth Games are getting close. In two months athletes from seventy countries will be competing in eighteen sports for 274 gold medals. I have been fortunate enough to help athletes attend three Commonwealth Games; two in swimming and one in track and field. The last two months before a Games are a testing time.

Politically I don’t have a lot in common with Olympic silver medallist and world record holder, Dick Quax. He is too right wing for my taste. I have often wondered about his politics. His conservative views never seemed to fit with the nature of the person that I knew. My experience of the person was of a superb athlete who was both kind and generous. On several occasions he used his world record holder status to arrange for my wife, Alison, to compete in the big European track meets. He was also a hugely entertaining dinner guest. His collection of track stories was second to none.

For example on a trip to communist Poland Dick convinced John Walker and Alison to give him some of their USA dollars. He had met a guy who was offering many more Polish Zlotys than the official exchange rate. Dick disappeared down a dark Warsaw alley and returned carrying a bundle of local money. As he unwrapped the money, to give John and Alison their share, they realized the bundle of Zlotys was actually two or three Zlotys wrapped around some newspaper cuttings. The con-man was gone and New Zealand’s best runners were not going to catch him.

Dick Quax emerges from the dark Warsaw alley.

After the track meet Dick and Alison were stopped at the airport and prevented from leaving. Payment of a bribe was demanded. I’m told the look on the officials face was worth gold when Dick offered his American Express card as payment. Clearly American Express is not what the officer had in mind. After arguing for a day, Dick and Alison were finally allowed to make their escape on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt.

One other interesting story came out of the same Polish trip. As the airplane taxied into Warsaw airport John Walker said, “This will be interesting. It’s our first visit to a communist country.” The three runners agreed but Coach Arch Jelley said, no, he had been to Russia before. That was news to Alison, John and Dick. “When was that?” they asked.

“Well,” said Arch, “in World War 2 I was a navigator on a Royal Navy submarine escorting convoys to Murmansk.” No wonder Arch stays calm during international track races. It probably takes quite a bit to match the stress of time spent under the Arctic Ocean during a war.

Perhaps Dick’s right wing views began when a communist con-man cheated him out of some USA dollars and a Polish airport official demanded a bribe. Whatever the reason he is a strong conservative voice on the Auckland Council. But I am still confused by the apparent disparity between Dick Quax the person and Dick Quax the politician.

However putting all that to one side some of the best sporting advice I have ever received came from Dick Quax. Prior to the Barcelona Olympic Games Toni Jeffs had just won a bronze medal in, what was then, the World Short Course Championships. She was favoured to do well in the Olympic Games. About two months before the Games I was talking to Dick and he said, “Be very careful in this last two months before the Games. Journalists need to write stories about the Games but there is no sport to write about. They will look for scandal.” If I was interviewed, Dick went on to say, I should talk about what Toni had done in the past. I should predict nothing. Just use vague expressions like, “She hopes to do well,” or “She will be trying her best.”

It was good advice. Leading up to any Games the headlines have little to do with sport. Relationships, drugs and injury take pride of place. It is all about who’s suffering heartbreak from a failed relationship or who is battling through injury or who is having to choose between competing and the birth of a child. Drug stories are always prominent in the last few weeks; who is suspected of cheating and how they are going to get caught.

Sadly I ignored Dick’s advice. I spoke to a dozen sport’s journalist about training and times and the possibility of success. We hosted a farewell party with 150 guests, a three course dinner, speeches and a stage show. A gold carpet was laid across the floor leading to a gold lectern. And it was all recorded by three television stations one flown in from Australia. Broadcasters Peter Williams and Mark Sainsbury were there, reporting on the event.

When things at the Games did not work out, for reasons I have often discussed in Swimwatch, journalists were quick to use my words against me. I don’t blame them for that. They were doing their job. I do blame myself though. I was not smart enough to follow the caution offered by Dick Quax.

And so two months to go before the Games is a time for caution. The motto for the 2018 Commonwealth Games is “Share the Dream”. But take the advice of Dick Quax. In this last few weeks don’t share your dream publically in the nation’s newspapers.