Helping the Year 12s

Dual Olympian and Co-Captain of the Australian team at the Tokyo Olympics, Steve Solomon has spent time helping our Year 12s through a tough year with a series of presentations.

“It’s a great honour to have the trust and responsibility to help the Year 12’s through this important part of their high-school journey,” he said. “Ultimately, I wish to embody the Cranbrook ethos of Esse Quam Videri. I have been helping the boys realise the reality of their situation and empower them to overcome the great challenges and complications that COVID-19 has brought to their lives.”

“Professional athletics and advanced education have taught me a lot about how to develop the grit and resilience needed to stand up when life knocks me down. Both have taught me the value of hard work, the importance of being intentional with my time, and the opportunities afforded to those who persist when others choose to give up.”

Steve has been helping the boys to tailor their preparations by honestly identifying what they know and what they still need to learn. He’s also been encouraging them to create daily routines for success, acknowledging any addictions and distractions that could threaten their performance.

“Professional athletes attend training camps a few weeks before important competitions to help focus us on the task at hand,” he said. “There are other parts of our lives that a training camp cannot provide, such as family, friends, community, diversity. But we make short-term sacrifices to focus on the most important part of the season—important competition. I’ve done my best to help the boys realise that they, too, are approaching the final weeks of an important part of their lives, the HSC. We’ve talked about how to take a high-performance approach to give themselves the best chance of success in their final exams.”

“Lastly, we’ve talked about how to manage stress, how to calm the body through nerves, and how to recover quickly from a poor performance to keep momentum alive throughout the three weeks of exams.”

The Cranbrook Years

Steve came to Cranbrook in Year 7, having grown up in East Lindfield. He’d spent his primary years at the local school, and the rest of the time outside.

“As a young kid, I was enthusiastic about anything that involved playing outside with friends,” he said. “Whether that was biking around the neighbourhood, or putting on a soccer jersey, rugby uniform, cricket whites, bathers, and swim cap, I just loved being active and outdoors.”

Rugby was his first love, and as a boy, he spent hours at the local park kicking for goal, like his heroes John Eales and Matt Burke. Apart from persistence and determination, another attribute that helped him on the sporting field was his speed—he was one of the fastest kids on the sporting field from a young age.

A shy student, he didn’t know anyone when he came to Cranbrook. But everything changed when—like Usain Bolt—his cricket coach noticed his speed.

“Simon Morrow was the cricket coach for the 7A’s, my first year at Cranbrook. And before our first cricket match, he asked if I would join the athletics team later that year. And the rest is history.”

By Year 12, Steve was the Australian 400m champion, spending three weeks before his HSC exams in Daegu, South Korea, competing at his first World Championships. At just 19 years old, he competed at the London Olympics, reaching the 400m finals—the first Australian male in 24 years to do so, and the first Australian to make the final of the 400m since Cathy Freeman.

“Would I have become an Olympian if it wasn’t for Simon Morrow? Possibly. But would I enjoy life with the same air of excitement, confidence, friendships, and experiences that Cranbrook provided me? Absolutely not,” Steve said. “Friendships. Mentors. Teachers. Opportunity. Belief. Cranbrook gave me all these things. The school allowed me to explore my interests and discover my talents. It gave me the space to figure out what I enjoyed and what I was good at. And once I had found those, it gave me the environment to practice and evolve in whatever direction I wanted.”

Life as an Olympian

Like our Year 12 students, Steve has experienced the frustrations of having something he was working towards delayed. He trained to be at his peak for Tokyo 2020, but the Games were postponed. This was particularly hard for Steve since he’d missed out on qualification for Rio 2016 by just a few milliseconds.

“Training for the Olympics tests you like nothing I’ve ever seen. And the physical part is the easy part, even though the physical preparation is really tough. Suddenly the finish line had been pushed back 12 months,” he said. “I was forced to soul-search: did I still have the energy and motivation to make it to the Olympics?”

“Mentally, I need to bring myself every day to train for a goal that has no guarantee. I need to be comfortable knowing that I am solely responsible for my performance; no teammate can save me. I am forced to grapple with the fact that in my world, we take each second and divide it one hundred times. In 2016, four of those one-hundred slices was the difference between me qualifying for the Rio Olympics and me watching from my couch back home.”

Studying in America

Steve has also shared his experiences of studying overseas with Cranbrook’s current Year 12s.

“College in America is amazing. In America, kids cannot wait to get to college. They start university with the mindset that these next four years will be some of the most memorable and formative years of their lives. And the importance of such a mindset cannot be underestimated.”

Steve went to Stanford University with plans to be a doctor, but everything changed once he started college.

“One of the parts of the US university system that I love is that you apply to a university, not a degree. In Australia, we apply to a specific degree at a specific university. Whereas in America, you apply to individual colleges, and once there, you have the ability to graduate in whatever degree you choose.”

He explored a range of subjects outside the scope of his human biology degree – classes in computer science, economics, design, psychology, ethics, entrepreneurship, sciences, and mathematics. All of these helped uncover his love for technology and business.

“Such freedom and opportunity make the USA educational system very unique and very special. To the boys at Cranbrook considering studying in America I say, do it! Whether it’s an entire degree, or an exchange, take the opportunity. You can always come back home … but rarely will you find yourself wanting to.”

He’s now working for Uber on the Uber Eats side of the business, working with the largest restaurant brands across Australia to formalise and operationalise their online food delivery strategy, working with their land acquisition team to provide delivery forecasts for potential new locations, with marketing teams to launch promotions, and with operations teams to make sure the delivery experience is smooth.

Steve loves the diverse mix of activities.

“I love my job. Every day, I get to work with the largest restaurant brands in Australia to formalise and optimise their online food delivery strategy. It’s a diverse mix of activities, and I’m super fortunate to work with an amazing team at Uber and in an industry that is new, growing like a wildfire, and demanding new ways of thinking at all levels of the industry.”

“One day I hope to achieve the same heights of success in the world of business as I’ve managed on the athletics track.”