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The average Olympian is intimately familiar with the pain and sacrifice that tends to come with earning the right to represent your country, and you’d be hard-pressed to find many athletes heading to Paris this year who are more aware of that reality than Australian field hockey player Matt Dawson.
Australia is one of the twelve countries that will be sending a delegation to the 2024 Olympics to compete in the men’s field hockey tournament that will kick off at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium on July 27th, and the team will be aiming to add an 11th medal to its collection after securing a silver in Tokyo in 2021.
Defender Matt Dawson was a member of that squad (who are known as the Kookaburras) and got to take to the podium for the first time after missing out on a medal when he made his Olympic debut in Rio in 2016.
On Wednesday, he hopped on a plane destined for Paris ahead of his third appearance, and while that trip went smoothly, the same certainly cannot be said for the journey that preceded it.
According to 7News, Dawson recently suffered a setback that put his spot in the Games in jeopardy when he suffered a fracture in the ring finger of his right hand.
While he could have opted for a cast, doing so would have prevented him from playing field hockey in Paris. However, the doctor he consulted with informed him there was a relatively extreme alternative he could opt for that would allow him to avoid that fate: amputation.
After consulting with his wife, the 30-year-old decided to go down that path and had the tip of his finger removed. He noted “I didn’t have much time to make the decision” but added it seemed to be the smart play “not only playing in Paris but for life after and giving myself the best health.”
Dudes rock.