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SMH: Grant Hackett Coming to U.S. For Rehab

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, among other papers, former Australian great Grant Hackett has flown to the United States to enter a rehabilitation program to treat an addiction to prescription sleeping pills.

Hackett is the second Australian swimming legend to enter rehab this year, as Ian Thorpe had a much-publicized admission as well.

Hackett’s addiction is not new news; he admitted in 2012 that he had once been addicted to the sleeping pill Stilnox (also known as ambien in the United States). This apparent relapse comes at a challenging time for Swimming Australia, where the federation is still recovering from a scandal involving a stilnox-fueled rampage in a pre-Olympic training camp that is blamed in part for the team’s lack of success.

However, coming to the United States for treatment is a much different tact than Thorpe has taken, and likely a wise one at that. In Australia, swimmers like Hackett are hailed as heros – whereas in the United States, they can live and seek treatment in relative day-to-day anonymity.

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10 years ago

Braden,

Tack, not tact. It’s a yachting term – a solution to the various climatic conditions.

Ben
10 years ago

why is stilnox spelled multiple different ways within this article?

10 years ago

All the top swimmers are taking ambien.

This guy gets it
Reply to  Nnakak
10 years ago

Unfortunately, this is true. The sport demands high performance nighttime performances that are often laced with caffeine. By the time an athlete has warmed down, gotten a rub, made it back to the hotel and eaten, it is usually late (11 or 12pm). They have little choice but to resort to sleeping aids in order to gain rest and be ready for when their alarm comes calling the next morning. Ambien (Stilnox) is excellent for what it does: it knocks the user out and carries relatively few hangover type side effects the following morning (even on 5 hours of sleep after consumption).

That said, the problem lies from a culture within the higher ranks of swimming that uses the… Read more »

This guy gets it
Reply to  This guy gets it
10 years ago

EDIT:

1. the sport demands high performance nighttime swims (first paragraph)

2. the problem comes from a culture (second paragraph)

coacherik
10 years ago

Thought the same thing for a second when I read the FB post headline.. Though I didn’t assume anything like some…

10 years ago

Is their a reason you put smh in the title? As in the acronym Shake My Head?! If Mr. Hackett read this he would find it quite condescending

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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