Australian Olympic gold medallist Dean Woods brought his family and friends to tears by delivering his own eulogy to his wife and children on Tuesday.
Woods died at the age of 55 earlier this month after a battle with lung cancer. He was best known as a member of the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ team pursuit squad. The prodigious cyclist was wearing the same suit he was buried in when he appeared in a pre-recorded video, which was shot weeks before his death. The video was played on a big projector screen behind his casket at the Wangaratta Performing Arts and Convention Centre.
Woods’ wife and three children had not seen the video before and were left incredibly moved by the emotional video. “I’m well prepared, even though I’m in the box in front of you,” Woods said. “This will be the suit I’ll be put in the box in. (I’ve) even got the torch…in there just in case it gets dark.”
Woods' wife of 28 years, Meagan, expressed the whole family were ‘devastated’. “We’re going home tomorrow and I think that’s when the reality will hit,” she said, via The Herald Sun. “Especially for myself and the girls, because we have had such a wonderful distraction. I think once we get back home and into the swing of things, the silence will be deafening.”
The service reportedly began with footage of Woods and his teammates winning gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics before ending with a tribute from his wife of 28 years. Woods had just celebrated his 18th birthday when he claimed gold in the team pursuit having upset the favoured United States quartet at the 1984 Games.
Woods, Mike Turtur, Michael Grenda and Kevin Nichols clinched Australia's first Olympic gold medal since 1956. Their upset led to the squad's nickname, ‘Charlie’s Angels’ - bringing the regime of of national coach Charlie Walsh to attention.
Woods claimed another three Olympic medals after striking gold in LA. He claimed a silver and bronze at the 1988 Seoul Games and returned in 1996 to win bronze in the team pursuit at the Atlanta Olympics.
Woods was also a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist who also set a world record and four national records, won three world championships and 20 national titles.
His eulogy from beyond the grave was both emotional and iconic, the perfect send-off for one of Australia’s finest Olympians.
“Hello ladies and gentlemen … it's a bit of a sad occasion,” Woods said in the pre-recorded video. “I've had a pretty extraordinary life, it's pretty hard for anyone to document that in a simple form, so the best person to do it is me.
“First of all, today is a sad day, but for me this is just my process with the whole cancer deal. It's not a tragedy, and I saw that for the reason I've spent so much time riding my bike throughout the world, had a lot of near misses, but never had any serious accidents.
“Now for me, to say to Meagan and the kids that I'm going out for a two hour ride, and not coming back – now that's a tragedy, because everything was fine.
“I’ve been fortunate enough, and I do say fortunate enough, to be able to have the time to put a few things in place, to get a few things sorted. Even though, two years ago when I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer …So the main issue was in the lungs.
“Which, when you consider someone who's spent 40 years with their lungs in their profession keeping you fit and healthy, it's just one of those things. But I've never once and never will say: 'Why me? Why me?'
“It's not who I am, and it's not the way to deal with it. It's like if I won 50 billion in the Lotto, would I be saying: 'Why me? Why me?'
“Absolutely not. So you take the goods with the bads. And that's what I've been able to do. I owe a massive amount of what I know to high performance sport.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to put myself through many arduous situations. And you still have that commitment to keep going. There's never that moment you want to stop, even though it does creep in, but you know there's an end goal. And the end goal is to keep going and push through.
“So even from a young age I've been very fortunate to have those experiences which have served me really well in my two terms of cancer.”
