For five-time Olympian Carl Probert, memories of Yat Sen School remain so deeply embedded that, decades later, the school still finds its way into his dreams.
“I think the school literally set the scene,” he reflects, recalling a recurring dream of flying that begins with him gliding around the top court at the primary school before effortlessly making his way down towards the secondary school grounds.
It is an evocative image from one of only two Olympians to have attended Yat Sen, a student who would go on to represent Fiji in swimming at five consecutive Olympic Games, from Barcelona 1992 through to Beijing 2008.
Today, Probert remains involved in the Olympic Movement as an Oceania member of the World Olympians Association Executive Committee.
Yet when Carl reflects on Yat Sen during its 90/40 anniversary, it is not medals, records or sporting achievement that first come to mind.
It is the school community.
Yat Sen, he says, gave him “the confidence to push way beyond my comfort zone growing up” and provided an early glimpse of how diverse the world could be, and how different, unique and capable people were.
“All parents were uncles and aunts,” he remembers.
School was a safe environment in which to experience everything from the awkwardness of singing, dancing, debating, acting and presenting before an audience to the simple highs of a good examination result, movie nights, windy days for sport, sinking the last basket at lunchtime or reaching the tuck shop early enough for the best lunch.
There were lows too: disappointing tests, detention, classmates leaving, cyclones, funerals and seemingly endless rainy days.
Together, those experiences helped build something that would become essential to Carl’s sporting journey: resilience and gratitude.
Most school mornings began around 5.00am so he could train. On cold, wet and dark mornings travelling to the pool, however, Carl would see fellow Yat Sen students already in uniform and heading into town with their families to unload and prepare markets or shops before school.
“If I had to get up at 5.00am, then they would have been up at 4.00am or earlier,” he recalls.
It gave the young swimmer perspective. Training could never become an excuse. Instead, he learned to appreciate the opportunities he had.
That discipline ultimately carried Carl far beyond the school grounds.
His Olympic journey spanned 16 years and five Games, while his contribution continued long after he left elite competition.
In 2016, he joined the World Olympians Association Executive Board representing Oceania, and the following year helped establish the Fijian Olympians Association to keep Fiji’s Olympians connected and enable them to contribute to their communities.
As Yat Sen celebrates 90 years of its primary school and 40 years of its secondary school, Carl’s journey is a reminder that education is about far more than what happens inside a classroom.
For one Yat Sen student, it provided the confidence, resilience, gratitude and sense of possibility to dream and eventually to carry Fiji to the greatest sporting stage in the world.
Carl Probert. Picture: SOPHIE RALULU
