Exciting times await as Kiwis chase history
There’s every reason to believe New Zealand athletes will deliver a record Olympic medals haul in Rio, as Marc Hinton reports.
It’s showtime. All the thousands of hours of training and competition, all the millions of dollars of investment and all the blood, sweat and tears have been spent. It is time now for New Zealand’s Olympic team to seize its destiny and deliver the most successful Games in this country’s rich sporting history.
No pressure, then. Not flaming half. The bar has been set the highest its ever been for an Olympic Games, and it is time for the elite of Kiwi sport to soar.
Sport by its very definition is about the ability to deliver in the big moments. And they don’t get much bigger for New Zealand’s largest, most funded and, frankly, most hyped Olympic team to leave our shores. Anything short of a record-breaking Games from our 199 athletes will present as a grave disappointment. Anything short of an obliteration of the previous best return will come up short of the mark.
A nation expects, and its elite sportsmen and women are poised to deliver. From Valerie Adams, to Lisa Carrington, to Lydia Ko, to those oarsome rowers, to the savvy sailors, to the power-packed cyclists, to the expectant sevens debutants, and many, many others, there is enough class, pedigree, form and potential for the next 16 days to produce something very, very special indeed.
These will be the Games when some fabulous history could be made by New Zealanders. The towering, taut, terrific Adams is on the precipice of something extraordinary. She is one big 20-metre-plus throw away from becoming the first New Zealander, and indeed first shot putter, to win gold at three straight Olympics.
At 31, this is almost certainly her final Olympics. She has said she intends to bow out at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
No doubt Adams is not quite the force she once was, when she bestrode her sport with a majesty and dominance that reduced her rivals to a quiver. Where once she was seemingly unbeatable (56 straight major meet victories over five years), now there is a hint of vulnerability in her makeup.
But, just in the nick of time, she has found her groove. She is back throwing that silver sphere over the 20m mark, and will enter the women’s shot put on August 13 (NZT) an excellent chance of achieving that historic hat-trick.
‘‘This is my fourth Olympics, and having experience on my side is great,’’ she declared pre-Rio.
‘‘You have to be prepared for anything and you can’t control what anybody else does, so you’ve just got to make sure you’re ready both physically and emotionally and hopefully everybody else does their bit and everything goes smoothly after that. Whatever happens, happens. Whatever it takes to win the gold medal is what I’m looking for.’’
But Adams is not alone in pursuit of greatness. Of her place in history.
Carrington, that canoe sprint machine from Tauranga, is a brilliant chance to win two events. She’s a lock in the K1 200m and is set for a mighty duel against Hungary’s Danuta Kozan in the K1 500m.
Rowing, too, could achieve something extraordinary if that magnificent squad delivers near its potential. The best a sport has achieved for New Zealand at the Olympics was the four golds won by Ferg, Macca and co in canoe sprint at the 1984 Los Angeles Games (aided, in no small part, by the Eastern bloc boycott).
The Karapiro contingent are considered strong medal chances in nine events, and with an ounce of luck they could surpass the three golds (and two bronzes) they won in London, and possibly even nudge into record territory. The perfect pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond are a laydown misere for gold, to complete a historic eight-year unbeaten streak in their class.
But others are excellent prospects to join them on top of the podium. The women’s double sculls (Zoe Stevenson and Eve Macfarlane) and lightweight double sculls (Julia Edward and Sophie MacKenzie) have won the past two world championships, while single sculler Mahe Drysdale, the men’s double of Robbie Manson and Chris Harris and the lightweight men’s four will all have gold in their sights.
Throw in women’s single sculler Emma Twigg, the women’s eight, the women’s pair of Rebecca Scown and Genevieve Behrent and outside chances in the men’s eight and quad and you have a rowing contingent ready to make a real splash. Possibly a record one.
Cycling, sailing and the debutant rugby sevens programmes also look set to deliver in Rio for a New Zealand team which should go well past the record haul of 13 medals achieved at both London 2012 and Seoul 1988. They are also a good chance of surpassing the eight golds achieved in LA in ‘84.
High Performance Sport NZ, which poured in a total of $172 million in funding over the Rio cycle, $112m targeted at these Games and nearly $90m into the 10 ‘‘tiered’’ sports from which the medals are expected to come, has conservatively targeted at least 14 medals. In other words, uncharted territory.
Sports database Gracenote has the Kiwis returning with 25 medals (seven gold, 12 silver and six bronze), Associated Press tips 23 (11 gold, five silver and seven bronze) and Sports Illustrated reckons on 19 (eight gold, eight silver and three bronze). They are optimistic but realistic aims.
Kiwis are expected to figure prominently in the two sports returning to the Games programme. World No 1 Lydia Ko starts as gold medal favourite in the women’s golf tournament, though of course will have her work cut out in her most equal opportunity of pursuits. Of the men, Danny Lee is an outside chance to contend.
Two or three years ago New Zealand would have been considered hot prospects to return with two golds from the debut of sevens rugby in Rio, but there has been slippage and the emergence of some cast-iron rivals. Sonny Bill Williams and the men will have to be at their best to see off the challenges of gold medal favourites Fiji and South Africa, while the Kiwi women will likewise be challenged by reigning world series champions Australia.
Where else should we look with anticipation?
On the waters of Guanabara Bay is as good a place as any, with the Kiwi sailors expected to go close to matching their four-medal haul of the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are the warmest of gold medal prospects in the men’s 49er, with London golden girls Polly Powrie and Jo Aleh (women’s 470) not far behind them.
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (49erFX), Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (men’s 470) and Finn sailor Josh Junior are also warm prospects to contend in their events.
Cycling should also net precious metal for the Kiwis in Rio, with the crack men’s sprint trio of Eddie Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell on track for gold, world champion Linda Villumsen a castiron contender in the women’s time trial, Dawkins a good chance in the keirin and the men’s pursuiters tipped to take bronze.
Medals could also come from Tom Walsh (men’s shot put), Andrea Hewitt (women’s triathlon) and Lauren Boyle (swimming), and of course this being the Olympics there will be high hopes for a Kiwi dark horse or two to come storming home to a surprise medal, a la Nick Willis in Beijing.
Hopefully, too, the dark cloud of doping, of political turmoil, of crime, corruption and the lack of readiness by the host nation will dissipate in a burst of excitement and expectation once the sports get under way.
These Olympics have had a troubled buildup, and many question whether the IOC now even upholds the virtues it purports to represent. But, as always, once the competition begins so much of the dark side of sport is forgotten amid the brightness and beauty of athletic pursuit.
New Zealand, of course, can play its part. Let the Games begin.