Villumsen delighted to return the love
There were two significant realisations when a shy Danish teenager who spoke broken English arrived at the Houkamau family home in west Auckland 14 years ago.
Parents Bindy and Angela, and their three daughters, knew a potential sporting champion stood in their living room. And Linda Villumsen, the 16-year-old exchange student, fell in love with the country and her second family before she’d even enrolled at Pakuranga College.
‘‘The moment I arrived in New Zealand, I wanted to stay. It was in my heart,’’ she said in a 2012 interview.
In between cycling for Denmark at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and for New Zealand at the London Games four years later, she decided not to renew her Danish passport. Her New Zealand citizenship was confirmed in 2009. There was no looking back.
Villumsen grew up in Herning, a city of around 50,000 people and home to FC Midtjylland, the 2015 Danish football champions and the club where All Whites skipper Winston Reid made his name.
It’s also the birthplace of Bjarne Riis, the 1996 Tour de France winner and national sporting hero who inspired Villumsen and many other young Danes to hop on a bike and ride fast. He later confessed to being a drug cheat, but his deeds on the road had already hooked Villumsen and her mates on the sport.
She arrived in Auckland to experience a new culture and improve her English. Villumsen could run fast, and ride fast; she helped her new college win an Auckland schools teams time trial. Angela Houkamau described her as ‘‘like an adopted daughter to us’’, and they marvelled at her discipline; an impeccable diet and the fact she’d politely decline family outings to train.
Villumsen, who is now 30, was Danish national champion in the road race and time trial in 2006, 2007 and 2009, the final year she competed under the Danish flag. That year was also the first of five successive world championship silver or bronze medals in the time trial, a frustrating run she finally broke with her maiden world title on Wednesday in Richmond, Virginia.
Her first year under the New Zealand flag, 2010, she finished third in the world championship time trial in Melbourne and won silver on the searing Delhi tarmac at the Commonwealth Games.
Two years later she faced a career turning point when she finished fourth at the London Olympics, beaten 1.83sec for bronze after being in the top-three for every time check. Fighting back tears outside Hampton Court Palace, she told a gaggle of New Zealand media of her devastation but uttered the immortal line: ‘‘four more years’’ as she switched focus to Rio.
So close yet so far from the top of the podium in London, Villumsen found the aftermath difficult. ‘‘I struggled a bit to find a proper gear again. It just didn’t feel right.’’
Then in 2014, joy and a welcome glimpse of the Villumsen grin. After so many near misses she zipped around the tight, turning city course in Glasgow to beat Eng- land’s favourite Emma Pooley in the Commonwealth Games time trial and hear God Defend New Zealand played in her honour for the first time. It was a watershed; her confidence skyrocketing. ‘‘When you see your name with a one on it, I couldn’t quite believe it. I’m like, did I really? It’s amazing.’’
Her most vocal supporter emerged; Villumsen’s partner Emma Trott, whose Twitter messages willed her on in Glasgow and Richmond. Trott’s sister Laura won points race gold in Glasgow, and their proud father Adrian tweeted at the time: ‘‘So I now hv a daughter @LauraTrott31 n Daughter in Law @LVillumsen with gold medals. Wooooo’’.
Emma Trott publicly cheered Villumsen on from afar on Wednesday, too. After tweeting a good luck photo of their two dogs wrapped in a New Zealand flag, she was glued to the live pictures.
‘‘Holy s*** I’m going to be sick!!! Come on @LVillumsen this is yours to take!’’
Then, also on Twitter: ‘‘I had a feeling yesterday @LVillumsen would win! She told me to keep my mouth shut I make her nervous! #bloodyproud.’’
And now Villumsen’s the early favourite for Rio time trial gold in 11 months’ time. The proud tweets for the Dane-turned-Kiwi may only have just begun – from all parts of the globe.
The moment I arrived in New Zealand, I wanted to stay. It was in my heart.
Linda Villumsen