Kiwis on track after tough year
Nick Flyger can’t speak for what went down before him, but what he’s seen in his time as New Zealand’s lead sprint coach can at least be described as encouraging.
The same goes for comments made by some of New Zealand’s gun cyclists two weeks after Cycling New Zealand and High Performance Sport charted a 10-point action plan, the result of a damning independent review, commissioned in the wake of elite cyclist Olivia Podmore’s death last year.
‘‘It’s been a tough 12 months for the team. I’ve only been with them for three months, but I can say, as a group, they have pulled together, and it’s pretty special,’’ Flyger said after New Zealand’s cyclists won a whopping 13 medals – eight of them gold – at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
However, appointed Rene Wolff’s replacement in February, Flyger knows a bevy of medals doesn’t necessarily mean everything is hunky-dory.
After all, as he pointed out before starting in his new role, he’d watched them enjoy a ton of success on the track during his 10 years in Cycling Australia’s programme.
‘‘Medals were being won and athletes were going quickly. But how that is being done and at the expense of what, that is the question and what the review will bring up, and I do believe sport can be fun,’’ he said in February.
On a barren field outside the Lee Valley VeloPark in London after the track programme wrapped up with New Zealand edging Australia as the most successful team, Flyger stood back and watched Andrews celebrate her third gold medal with team-mates, friends and family.
It was the case throughout New Zealand’s dominant four days on the track, when Kiwi athletes escaped the noisy velodrome and media mixed zone for that arid field, where they laughed, smiled, chatted and cried tears of joy.
After being interrupted by Andrews’ excited grandfather, eager to shake Flyger’s hand, the sprint coach had more encouraging words.
‘‘They have been through a lot, but they are in a real healthy space.’’
Andrews, a training partner of Podmore, certainly looked and sounded it both before and after competition.
‘‘Absolutely, I’m feeling support and inspired in my environment at the moment, and that’s the most important thing leading into racing,’’ she said last week.
Andrews went on to become the fourth athlete in New Zealand history to win three gold medals at a Commonwealth Games.
She also came to the aid of the women’s team pursuit after Ally Wollaston was scratched through injury, helping them win silver.
‘‘I never could have dreamed that we would walk away with this many results. Not only personally, but so proud of Cycling New Zealand, and the New Zealand team as well,’’ Andrews said.
When she had a day off the track, she was at the velodrome watching team-mates do their thing.
Silver medallist Michaela Drummond, having won the 10km scratch race, was more concerned about the wellbeing of team-mate Bryony Botha than celebrating her medal, after the latter crashed out of the race.
As triple gold medallist Aaron Gate put it: ‘‘I don’t think we would have raced like we did if we all hated each other.’’
More music to the ears of Cycling NZ, which apologised for ‘‘unresolved trauma’’ and detailed a culture of ‘‘medals before process’’, a lack of transparency and accountability around selection and recruitment, and an environment where gender biases are prevalent.
Which leads to the word ‘‘processes’’, used by Flyger, standing on that parched field, that stood out when he looked ahead, knowing dominating the Commonwealth Games only says so much.
‘‘The Games are tough. But we’ve still got to work hard, there is still some exceptionally good nations that aren’t here.
‘‘But that’s the fun part, isn’t it? Trying to chase perfection, trying to get all the processes right, that’s what we’re trying to do.’’