Let’s celebrate Kiwi success, regardless of origin

Lisa Carrington, Lydia Ko and now Linda Villumsen, it’s been quite a month for New Zealand sport and sportswomen.

Three Kiwis on top of the world, one flailing paddles, one firing darts at greens with her golf irons, one head down over the handlebars.

New Zealand flags flying in Italy, in France and now in the US – even one wrapped around Villumsen’s two dogs, her partner’s Twitter feed revealed.

Proud Kiwis one and all, and a trio of women most New Zealanders are proud to call their own. Most. Some are not. Golf major winner Ko is one of the most popular sportswomen in New Zealand. She has charm, is modest and humble.

When she wins, stories about her fly up the news charts, and her list of feats – including world No 1, the youngest women’s golf major winner in history – stretch down the page.

What the public don’t see though, are the comments that don’t pass scrutiny and are never published – the ones that say she’s Korean, not a Kiwi.

Danny Lee – who is trying to figure out how to watch the Rugby World Cup when he’s in his Korea, where he was born, playing in the Presidents Cup – cops that trolling nonsense too.

Will Villumsen as well? She was born in Denmark, not Dannevirke or Norsewood (Scandinavian settlements both).

Are Japanese sport trolls now laying in to Michael Leitch, Karne Hesketh and Aussie Eddie Jones, crucial components of their side’s boilover RWC win over South Africa?

Leitch has a Fijian mother, a father who was born in Bluff and captains Japan. He speaks fluent Japanese. When Hesketh scored, I took delight for Japan, not Napier or Otago. He scored for Japan, and the world (apart from the bit at the southern tip of Africa) celebrated a Japanese victory.

If Japanese trolls are attacking them, it would be akin to Kiwis bowling verbal bouncers at Cricket World Cup hero Grant Elliott, who was born in South Africa and played his initial firstclass cricket there, as did fast bowler Neil Wagner.

Northern hemisphere types like to point to the All Blacks, accusing New Zealand of pillaging the Pacific Islands for the bulk of our side.

Yes, Jerome Kaino is American Samoan (and has been in this country for about 28 of his 32 years); Waisake Naholo is Fijian, Malakai Fekitoa is Tongan.

Otherwise those born overseas are Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Ben Franks (from Melbourne, but Owen Franks was born in Motueka)

But Victor Vito, Ma’a Nonu, Charlie Faumuina, Julian Savea . . . all born in New Zealand.

World sport is changing. For the better.

So let’s celebrate Villumsen for nailing gold, after five podium finishes at world championships. And celebrate Ko, Lee, Leitch, Hesketh and Elliott too.

Good on ya Kiwis.