Ordinary Kiwis doing extraordinary things
TO THE world, Andrea Hewitt is a triathlete. To New Zealand, she is a battler. Two years ago, we all watched as she swam, cycled and ran shoulder to shoulder with the world’s best, before falling away from the leaders to finish sixth at the London Olympics.
Training last year on the quake-damaged roads of Christchurch, her bike hit a pothole and she went over the handlebars, smashing her helmet and knocking herself out.
Just three months ago, the 32-year-old flew to France to be at the hospital bedside of her fiance, who had suffered a heart attack while training, and was placed in an induced coma.
He recovered to accompany her to Glasgow where, two days ago, Hewitt raced in the women’s triathlon. Competitive after the swim, in the lead bunch coming off the bike, she fell 30 metres behind in the run leg. She looked gone – but slowly, painfully, she dragged herself back to the bunch for a fighting chance. She finished an agonising fourth. ‘‘I did my best,’’ she said. ‘‘I gave it everything. I couldn’t have done any better.’’
Watching back in New Zealand, the grit and courage of athletes like Hewitt inspires us to persevere in our own small and humble challenges. A win means little unless it is hard-fought.
At the Sunday Star-Times, our journalists are fortunate to enough to meet such inspiring and inspired Kiwis every day.
In Glasgow, Fairfax photographer Rob Kitchin captures the agony on Hewitt’s face as she seeks to stay with the leaders. Back home, Steve Kilgallon talks to hard rockers Shihad about why they’re donating the proceeds of an unprecedented pay-per-view music gig to the Christchurch earthquake recovery (News, page 8); Andrea Vance sits down with prisoners who are embracing a second chance in the workforce (News, page 12); Josh Fagan meets 23-year-old South Auckland baritone Benson Wilson, who skipped basketball for choir practice — and last night competed in the Lexus Song Quest (News, page 4). As the new editor of the
Star-Times, it is a great privilege for me to help tell such stories, entrusted to us by New Zealanders – ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Andrea Hewitt is one such person. After all she’s been through, nobody would have blamed her if she had said, enough’s enough.
But overnight in Glasgow, Hewitt again lined up with her Kiwi team-mates for the start of the triathlon relay. And never mind the medals. Her stubborn determination inspires us all to ‘‘give it everything’’.