Greatest comeback ever?
Ihave thought long and hard about even putting these words to print, for fear of repeating the hope and expectation of four years ago, which turned out to be utter devastation.
But this needs to be said.
If Team New Zealand win this America’s Cup, it would have to rank as one of the greatest comebacks, not just in New Zealand sport, but in world sport.
Now before you tell me to “settle down — it’s just a rich man’s game which still alienates sections of the Kiwi sporting public”, hear me out.
After that heartbreaking loss to Oracle in San Francisco in 2013 (yes, many still call it the choke of all chokes), this Team NZ were dead in the water. Literally.
I remember interviewing CEO Grant Dalton for my Newstalk ZB radio show in the days following the loss.
It’s fair to say he was a broken man. He was alone at the Team New Zealand base in San Francisco, resigned to the fact his time of trying to win the Cup was over. He wanted out.
To this day, I’m still not entirely sure what prompted Dalton and the likes of Sir Stephen Tindall — who’s backed this syndicate with his own money — to have another go.
The government agreed to an interim investment of $5 million to keep some semblance of a team together, while decisions on another campaign were made.
That did not stop the vultures (read: rival syndicates) picking at the bones of the Team NZ carcass and stealing key design personnel.
Then came the messy removal of Dean Barker as skipper, with several of his mates following him out the door. Barker later claimed he never knew he was on the way out, which was at odds with what I’d been told when I broke the story — that Peter Burling was always destined to take over.
A team on the verge of selfdestructing needed a new face, a new public persona, and Burling and his offsider Blair Tuke were it. Proven winners.
The fact Team NZ even made it to the start line this time around is a remarkable feat. That they managed to rewrite the way these foiling cats are sailed is equally impressive.
For eight months, they kept the cycling grinders the most closely guarded secret — cyclist Simon van Velthooven was not even allowed to tell family members he’d made the switch from the track to sailing. Olympic rower Joe Sullivan was also tried out and given a gig as a cyclor — as they have since become known.
What that initial design meeting must have been like, when someone piped up and said: “Hey, let’s try cycling grinders. And let’s recruit blokes who are not even professional sailors.”
I can’t explain why I feel such a close affinity with Team NZ. Like many of you, I am no sailing expert.
But if this team — defeated and divided four short years ago — manage to bring the Cup back to New Zealand, this could well be the greatest redemption story ever told.