Harry Gordon - the man who loved Olympics
On a July day in 1952, Harry Gordon watched awe-struck as Finnish legend Paavo Nurmi ran into Helsinki's stadium carrying the torch that was to ignite the flame at the Helsinki Olympics.
It was at that moment that Gordon fell deeply, irretrievably in love with the Olympic Games.
"Nurmi is one of my heroes of the Olympics," Gordon recounted more than 50 years later.
"He was last runner in the torch relay and to see him loping in with that same stride was just marvellous."
In 1952 Gordon was a young Australian journalist who had served in the RAAF and spent time as a war correspondent in Korea.
But now he had been given the chance to do what he loved best - write about sport, in particular the Olympic Games.
Apart from seeing his idol Nurmi, a nine-time gold medallist, Gordon also got to witness the extraordinary Emil Zatopek win a unique hat-trick of 5000m, 10,000m and marathon gold medals, and Marjorie Jackson win Australia's first track and field gold medal since 1896.
Gordon, who has died on the Gold Coast at the age of 89, went to 10 summer Olympics. His last was in London in 2012.
His love of sport was matched by his love for words, which flowed from an insightful pen for the best part of 70 years.
For the last quarter-century of his long and generous life he was Australia's official Olympic historian, and it is fair to say that no one did more to deepen the nation's understanding of its Olympic identity.
The centrepiece of this work was his monumental book Australia and the Olympic Games, published in 1994, and its sequel, The Time of Our Lives.
He published 15 books, the last of them From Athens With Pride in 2014.
As he wrote in the introduction to Australia and the Olympic Games: "I have been able to immerse myself in a subject which has interested me for many years, and my sources have included people for whom I have deep respect, and in many cases people with whom I share warm friendships.
"Labour of love is a bit of a cliche. But that, I reckon, is what it truly has been."
You could say the same about Gordon's entire career as an author and journalist.
He began as a copy boy on the Daily Telegraph in Sydney and progressed through a variety of postings to become editor of The Sun in Melbourne, executive editor of The Herald and Weekly Times, editor-in-chief of Queensland Newspapers, editor-in-chief of The Herald and Weekly Times, and chairman of Australia's national news agency AAP.
He was was of those rare journalists who could do it all. He was a fast, accurate reporter, a beautiful writer, a great campaigning editor, and a gifted administrator.
He also had a gift for friendship and was always happy to mentor and encourage young journalists.
When he retired from the Herald and Weekly Times, Gordon returned as an AAP columnist in Seoul at the 1988 Olympics and went to every succeeding Games through to London in 2012.
He remembers the two Games hosted by Australia - Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000 - as perfect examples of the spirit of the Olympics, though he was saddened by the subsequent revelations that stars like Marion Jones and the winning US 4x400m men's relay team in Sydney were later found to be drug cheats.
He believed Ben Johnson's disqualification in Seoul marked a watershed in Olympic competition.
"By 1988 they were no longer innocent. The bad elements had taken hold," he said.
But not entirely.
"I think if you look for it, you see the true spirit of the Olympics demonstrated constantly," Gordon said.
"It's one of the reasons I'm really addicted to the Olympics. I was just so lucky to get involved with them at a young age and to stay involved with them."
