Swimmers like Ellen Walshe deserve to be served better by authorities
Zhang Yufei is among the Chinese swimmers who returned positive dope tests. Photo: David Balogh / Getty
We’re in the studio on the first night and Bill [O’Herlihy] says, ‘What’s going to happen here?’ I said, ‘She’s probably going to win the gold medal.’ And he was almost giddy: ‘Gold medal! Day one! This is amazing!’ And it was a kind of strange because I think Bill always considered himself a journalist.
‘And he was well versed in swimming. His two daughters, Jill and Sally, were involved in the sport — Sally was national standard — and he understood how it worked and what it took; that people don’t come from nowhere. But that night he was just the conduit, and we were both happy to tip-toe around everything.
