I thought the Olympic news wave would have flattened out by now, but the Jessica Schipper drama with her coach Ken Wood continues to make headlines.

If you somehow missed it during the Olympics, it was revealed that Schipper’s coach had sold training programs to the Chinese swimmers who actually beat her in the 200-metre final.

When I first heard that, I thought it would compare to Melbourne Storm being beaten in the NRL grand final by Manly and then Storm coach Craig Bellamy revealing he had sold his game plan to the silvertails.

Of course he would get the sack at the very least, as Ken Wood has, but I don’t think it is as simple as I first thought.

There are couple of things that stand out to me, the first being an interview during the Olympics with the parents of Schipper.

It was mentioned that the swimmer’s suit had malfunctioned during the semi and actually caused her to swim a slower time, which I found unusual as 13 of the 14 medals were won with those suits.

And of course it was also mentioned Jessica wasn’t well, which might have affected her performance.

I may be wrong, but I am always wary of parents who are involved in their kids’ sporting future, and I see they were also involved in the sacking of Wood, who, let’s face it, can’t get in the pool and swim for her or the Chinese – it is still up to the athletes.

But Wood didn’t go out with a whimper and I thought one of his quotes was gold: “Heroes? Olympic swimmers aren’t heroes, they are champion swimmers who get well paid for the 22 hours’ training a week that they do.

Heroes are people that jump into a pool full of crocodiles and save someone.”

Now to be honest, if I was Schipper’s father I probably would have sacked him as well, just on principle, but Wood is dead right about the hero quote.

We are infatuated with our sporting stars but he is right they aren’t heroes; they are just good at their job.

In my opinion they certainly shouldn’t be put up there as role models either.

I have made that mistake before but I am now certain that sporting stars, while they should behave themselves like normal citizens, shouldn’t cop the role model tag.

We shouldn’t be blaming them for setting a bad example for our kids and it shouldn’t be used in the terms of their prosecution, whether it is by the media or common law.

A chance to reflect
Lately I seem to be spending my time at funerals, my friend Jane Thomas’s a few weeks ago and then young Joel Eastman’s last week.

Talk about heroes, there was a guy – the same age as my son, 27 – who had fought a brave fight against MS for 10 years. I think the tag hero sits better on his shoulders with the attitude he took to it all.

Then on Monday I attended the funeral of Beryl Muspratt, who was a former teacher and significant member of the community, just like Jane, someone who helped mould the lives of thousands of students on the Coast.

While I was sitting there I was thinking about the advice Beryl had given me on plenty of occasions when I visited their house to see her son, Julian.

As I sat there and looked at the people beside me, I was also reminded how lucky I was when I was growing up in Nambour because as fate would have it, we moved in beside the Sherwells, who were my neighbours again briefly, if only for an hour, in the chapel.

It became clear to me then that your kids are moulded by their teachers, their friends, the friends’ parents and, most of all, their own.

Even though we were in the church to celebrate another truly remarkable life, I was also thankful that the cards I was dealt when I was growing up all fell the right way.

I was blessed with giving parents and a great group of friends and teachers, and while I probably disappointed some of them, I was given every chance.

Forget about sporting stars, I think there are plenty of heroes and role models much closer to home.