Greg Jones: Releases scathing new book, Too Good To Win

He won Paralympic gold, he broke the world record and then according to his father and coach, everything began to change.
 

When Australian Paralympian Lachlan Jones won gold and set a world record at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, his father and coach Greg Jones thought they had reached the pinnacle of an extraordinary sporting journey.
 

Instead, Greg says it marked the beginning of a battle he could never have imagined.
 

As Lachlan's success and dominance grew, Greg claims classifications changed, standards were rewritten and opportunities disappeared, turning what should have been the continuation of an extraordinary international sporting career into a fight for his son's right to compete.
 

Now, three decades after Atlanta, the decorated Australian Paralympic coach is telling the story in a confronting new book with a title that encapsulates his extraordinary allegation: Too Good To Win.
 

"Lachlan did everything an athlete is supposed to do. He trained, he competed, he won gold and he broke a world record, but instead of success opening doors, I felt we were increasingly fighting to keep those doors from being closed," Greg said.
 

"As his father I was incredibly proud of him, but as his coach I could see what was happening around us and I knew I couldn't simply stand back and accept it.
 

"This stopped being only about sport. It became a fight for fairness, dignity and my son's right to compete."
 

From Paralympic glory to a fight beyond the finish line
 

Greg's new book tells the story from the rare dual perspective of the man who was both Lachlan's father and his coach.
 

It takes readers behind the medal ceremonies and world records into what Greg describes as the far less visible world of classifications, administration, sporting politics and the enormous difficulty individuals can face when they challenge decisions made by powerful institutions.
 

For Greg, the experience raises an uncomfortable question that sits at the centre of Too Good To Win: what happens when an athlete becomes so successful that their dominance itself appears to become a problem?

"At Atlanta, Lachlan stood at the top of the world. He was a Paralympic champion and world-record holder, and you would think that would have been the beginning of the most exciting chapter of his sporting life," Greg said.
 

"What followed was something entirely different.
 

"I watched classifications change, standards shift and opportunities disappear. I had spent years teaching athletes that if they worked hard enough and became good enough they could achieve extraordinary things, but suddenly I found myself asking what happens when somebody becomes too good.
 

"There is a saying I have used throughout this journey: you can't negotiate with a tiger when your head is in its mouth. That captures how powerless you can feel when you are challenging a system that holds enormous influence over an athlete's future."
 

The father who refused to stop fighting
 

Greg was no outsider to elite disability sport. A highly successful Paralympic coach, he coached Cerebral Palsy World Championship teams and worked with numerous world champions and Paralympic gold medallists.
 

At the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, Greg said athletes he had recruited and coached went on to win 14 gold medals, compared with 10 won by athletes he compares with the Australian Institute of Sport program.
 

His contribution to Australian sport was recognised with the Australian Sports Medal and a Duke of Edinburgh Award, while he also attained Level 4 coaching credentials through the Victorian Institute of Sport. But none of those credentials could remove the emotion of watching his own son caught in a battle over the sport he loved.
 

"When you are a coach, you are trained to analyse performance, solve problems and find a way forward. When it is your own child, there is another dimension entirely," Greg said.
 

"I wasn't prepared to tell Lachlan to simply accept something because challenging it was difficult. If I believed something wasn't right, I was going to fight for him."
 

More than a sporting controversy
 

Too Good To Win is not simply a book about medals, records or Paralympic competition. It is a story about fatherhood, disability, resilience, advocacy and the personal cost of standing up to a system when you believe it is failing someone you love.
 

Greg's understanding of disability also extends far beyond elite sport. As the father of a child with complex disabilities, he has spent decades navigating the realities faced by people with disability and their families and has provided independent justice advocacy across social and legal matters.
 

He believes the story has particular relevance today because Australians now celebrate Paralympic athletes with a level of public recognition that was vastly different during earlier periods of the movement.
 

"People see the medal and the finish line, but they don't necessarily see what happens behind them," Greg said.

"This book is about what happened when winning wasn't enough. It is about the fight beyond the finish line and what it can take to keep going when you believe the system isn't listening."
 

The next chapter of a bestselling father-and-son story
 

Too Good To Win follows Greg's earlier book, Walk A Crooked Mile: A Father's Journey in the Footsteps of his Son, published by New Holland.
 

The deeply personal account of a father and son navigating disability, sport and resilience became a bestseller, with the film rights subsequently sold. Now Too Good To Win takes readers into the next and more confronting chapter of that journey.
 

The story has attracted powerful endorsements over the years, with bestselling Australian author Bryce Courtenay describing it as 'a triumph of the human spirit', while International Olympic Committee figure John D Coates told Greg, 'Your achievements have inspired a nation'.
 

Carlton champion Rod Ashman told him, 'You showed that if you don't believe, you won't achieve', while comedian and disability advocate Adam Hills has also come on board in support of the project.
 

Greg, who is now retired and lives in Point Lonsdale in Victoria, said the decision to publish the story was about ensuring an important part of Australian Paralympic history was not forgotten.
 

"I am at a point in my life where I can look back at what happened, but that doesn't make the questions disappear," Greg said.
 

"I want people to read the story, understand what Lachlan achieved and understand what followed, because history isn't only the moments we celebrate. Sometimes the most important stories are the ones about what happened after everyone stopped watching."
 

Too Good To Win is available now in softcopy and hardcopy. The audiobook is narrated by Greg himself, bringing readers and listeners directly into the triumph, frustration and determination behind the story.
 

About Greg Jones
 

Greg Jones is an Australian author, decorated Paralympic coach, disability advocate and former creative director. He coached Cerebral Palsy World Championship teams and numerous world champions and Paralympic gold medallists and received the Australian Sports Medal and a Duke of Edinburgh Award.
 

Greg is the author of the bestselling Walk A Crooked Mile: A Father's Journey in the Footsteps of his Son, the film rights to which were subsequently sold. His new book, Too Good To Win, tells the next chapter in the story of Greg and his son Lachlan, exploring the battle that followed Lachlan's Paralympic gold medal and world record.
 

Website: toogoodtowin.com.au
Further information: wanger.com.au