Games a triumph for the independent Kiwi

Success stories such as Lisa Carrington and Mahe Drysdale do things on their own terms.

OPINION: It’s been a darn good Olympics for New Zealand. It’s been an Olympics where sports men and women of real courage and determination have crossed the line far ahead of the civil servants. It’s been the Olympics where a small group of extraordinary individuals have done the country proud.

Sport New Zealand was telling us that we have never had it so good in the run-up to the games. The cycling team with its fancy new velodrome was supposed to pedal back with a rucksack stuffed with medals. All the money invested in Kiwi sport was going to buy a golden success story.

But these Games have turned out to be about people, not money, and there can be no more glorious legacy. The mighty Mahe Drysdale, winning gold again at the age of 37, is coached by Dick Tonks, the man that Rowing New Zealand tried to throw overboard – too maverick, too difficult and a traitor who wanted to see what he could do for the sport in China.

Well Tonks got it right, again, and Rowing New Zealand got it wrong, failing to peak at the Olympics. We also give thanks to Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, indisputably the greatest rowing team of all time. They switched away from Tonks to Noel Donaldson after London, but they did it on their terms.

Time and time again selfdetermination has proved vital for New Zealand’s medallists. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were disappointed after London and their priority was a new coach. They appointed Hamish Willcox and are now unbeaten in a regatta for four years.

There is a pattern here. Lisa Carrington and Gordon Walker, born in Zimbabwe and a man with a diverse coaching background, do their own thing. They have separated themselves from the desperate politics of Canoe Racing New Zealand.

Carrington once said, ‘‘I thought it was best if I just focused and was really determined to achieve what I wanted to achieve. It was a matter of being true to myself and not letting other things dictate what I do. I guess there are things that you can’t control, like selections and selectors who decide what events you will compete in – but you can decide your own fate by training as hard as you can, by learning from your mistakes.’’

It’s the template for New Zealand’s successful medallists. Valerie Adams never loses even when she finishes second. It was almost unbelievable that some criticised her performance in Rio. Adams came up with her best shot putt for two years and then spoke with a grace and dignity that was one of my highlights of the Games.

She is an example to all New Zealand’s athletes. She is an example of how to behave in victory and defeat. She is an example of how to persevere through injury and disappointment. She is an example of supreme self-determination, willing to take herself away from home and live in a shoe box to be with coach Jean-Pierre Egger.

Look at Luuka Jones, New Zealand’s surprise silver medallist in whitewater kayaking. She took herself to Nottingham and teamed up with Britain’s Campbell Walsh. They travelled the world and put in 10 weeks of specialist training over the Olympic course. Look at Natalie Rooney, New Zealand’s surprise silver medallist in trap shooting. She spent the two-anda-half months before the Games in Italy with coach Andrea Miotto.

No-one is denying that funding from Sport New Zealand has not enabled these athletes to be successful. But more often than not it has been on their terms. They have pursued their dreams with coaches from all over the world. They have not been constricted by a centralised programme.

One of the most revealing comments of the Games came when Aaron Gate, a member of New Zealand’s world champion pursuit team, said, ‘‘A few things caught us out, one of them being the shape of the track. It probably sounds stupid because they all look like oval bits of wood but it makes a huge difference to the way you ride it. It just caught us a bit off guard.’’

The pursuit team were a secondand-a-half slower than their national record. Perhaps they don’t get out enough. Perhaps their training methods are too centralised and narrow. So yes, it does sound a bit stupid.

Don’t fall for the hype. The civil servants at Sport New Zealand want to be the brains behind winning ‘‘black gold.’’ They want you to believe that sporting success leads to the legacy of greater participation where there is no evidence for this. Participation has dropped by 0.4 per cent in Britain since London and the story is no better in Beijing, Athens, Sydney, Atlanta or Barcelona.

At the time of writing all four of New Zealand’s gold medals, and 10 out of the total medal count of 14, had been won on the water. The exceptions were the women’s sevens team, Adams, Rooney and the cycling men’s team sprint. This is a mightily independent island nation and I wonder if the country’s psyche is suited to a watery independent isolation. Maybe we should flood the land if we really want to win more gold medals.

But let’s not turn the Olympics into a Trump rally. Back in 1984, when the USA won 83 out of the 226 golds on offer at their home Olympics, William Greider wrote in Rolling Stone magazine, ‘‘ABC’s coverage was an orgy of patriotic hype, jingoistic cheer-leading by supposedly detached sports commentators and a series of mini-melodramas in which heroic young Americans struggled against foreigners with strange names. The montage of Olympic images delivered an implicit political message. America is back, America is standing tall, America is winning. Foreigners are the enemy, the losers.’’

At times some of New Zealand’s Olympic coverage has been similarly depressing. But when I remember these Games I will remember Adams’ grace in defeat, Drysdale’s heroic victory and a Japanese man called Jun Mizutani saving three match points to beat China’s Xu Xin at table tennis.

In the great scheme of things it meant nothing. In the great scheme of things China still won the team gold. But it was one small moment of individual human heroism triumphing over the corporate machine.