A mysterious Tui in a pool, a breathtaking pole vault and a freakish rowing double: LockerRoom writer David Leggat, a reporting veteran of five Olympic Games, shares his favourite memories.
What's your first Olympic memory?
Back in 1968, the early morning swimming class for 10-year-olds had assembled at Christchurch's Centennial Pool. There were about 10 of us, overseen by celebrated local coach Jack Breward.
On one morning, Jack became quite animated with us. He had a habit of clapping his hands urgently if he wanted our attention, or to stress a point.
“Come on! Two more laps then you have to finish for the day because Tui’s coming in. She needs the whole pool because she’s going to the Olympics in Mexico,” he announced.
It meant nothing to us, except we’d be off to school a few minutes earlier than usual.
“Tui” turned out to be Tui Shipston, a Commonwealth Games representative in Jamaica two years earlier who was heading to her first Olympics.
She turned up just as we were stepping out of the pool. Boy, she was tall and, er, old. All of 16 as it happened.
The memory stuck. What were these ‘Olympics’ which our coach had spoken of with such reverence? I’d been lucky enough to have attended two All Black tests by this point, but the word ‘Olympics’ hadn’t really registered.
For the record, Shipston, who’d turned 17 when the Games began, made the final of the 400m individual medley, finishing seventh.
And it spurred a curiosity in me.
What are your favourite Olympic moments - first watching from afar?
Two stand out, and are very different.
I wasn’t at the Tokyo Games of 1964, but wish I’d been there to watch Peter Snell.
He’d already won 800m gold in Rome as an unheralded 21-year-old four years earlier. By 1964 he was among the biggest names in world athletics. So, no pressure.
Snell delivered with gold in the 800m, relatively comfortably, then the 1500m by a distance. He toyed with the field and even watching the film now, as he surges away on the final lap, you can’t help but be awestruck at the power and dominance he exerted.
Three Olympic events, three gold medals. Hard to top.
Then at Rio five years ago, watching Eliza McCartney, in a disbelieving head-clutching moment, realising she had grabbed the bronze in the women’s pole vault final, inspiring teenage girls to strive to go higher.
It also stands out for me as I discovered the number of people who hadn’t the slightest interest in pole vault, but contacted me within the next few days just to say they had watched it, and loved it.
And then being there?
So many, but here are three:
My first Games in Barcelona in 1992. On the final day of the athletic programme at the Montjuic Stadium, Fermin Cacho -Spain’s representative in the final track event, the blue riband 1500m - wasn’t expected to figure at the sharp end.
Instead, Cacho sprinted clear in the final 200m to head off the African contenders, to the backdrop of a deafening roar to clinch the gold. Think hairs on the back of your neck. He was no one-off Charlie; he won silver four years later in Atlanta.
Twelve years later and it’s an overheated day in Athens. The men’s triathlon race had, for New Zealand fans, a dream finish as Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty duelled for gold and silver over the last 800m, having burned off their rivals. With one final thrust, Carter shook off his dogged rival to claim gold.
How often do New Zealanders get the top two places on an Olympic podium? Blyth Tait and Sally Clark did in the individual eventing at Atlanta and that’s it. It was a slightly strange feeling as they came down the road clear of everyone and you knew New Zealand had 1 and 2.
And finally, London 2012 and the Eton Dorney rowing course. At 250m from the finish, double scullers Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan were fourth, seemingly out of it.
Then they found a fifth gear and positively roared past the three boats in front of them to grab a stunning gold just before the line. Sullivan, in the stroke seat and soon to join Team New Zealand as a grinder, flung his arms high, then stood up in the boat to soak in the cheers from the bank. Magic.
What's your dream scenario to play out in Tokyo?
Given this will be an Olympics like none before it, what chance of there being plenty of surprises? So how about a New Zealand medal or two no-one had foreseen?
Say, young swimming gun Erika Fairweather standing on the podium after the 400m freestyle? Or Jordan Parry, who no-one outside rowing circles has heard of, taking over Mahe Drysdale’s single sculling job?
It’s easy to root for the tried and tested, but the sheer exhilaration of watching something completely unexpected happening would make these a Games to be remembered, albeit in the strangest of all possible circumstances.
What events are you most looking forward to?
The men’s 1500m final. Simple. The classic race and what chance a New Zealand presence in the form of double Olympic medallist Nick Willis? Or his young hopeful Sam Tanner?
The mind races back to the final sprint in the home straight in Beijing 2008 when my estimable colleague Eugene Bingham briefly lost the plot as we watched Willis thrust his way into third – later promoted to second - in the final strides: “Go on boy, go! He’s done it! You beauty!” Olympic experiences, and memories, tend to stay with you a long time.
