Nigel Avery: Team New Zealand Chef de Mission on the preparations for the Olympics in Paris

The Paris Olympics are just nine days away. 

As of this morning, the New Zealand team has been finalised, with 195 athletes covering 23 sports. 

Chef de Mission for the Kiwi contingent Nigel Avery is on the ground in Paris, settling into the athletes’ village and preparing for the arrival of the team. 

He told Mike Hosking that when it comes to the River Seine, the weather is the main problem. 

Avery said that when it rains the runoff causes problems, but the next ten days are forecast to be dry. 

If all else fails and the Seine is too dangerous to swim in, the triathlon will simply become a duathlon. 

“At the end of the day though, it is what it is.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Olympics just nine days away. We have, as of
fire this morning officially our final team set to go,
so that includes one hundred and ninety five athletes, twenty
three sports. The Chift mission in Paris's night to labor.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
He's with us morning, Good morning to you too.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's the vibe.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
The ViBe's pretty good. Yeah, it's the weather's been nice,
it's not too hot, and the people in the village
have been very, very helpful. The villagers ready to go
from us from a walking and get our sort of
provibal stuff together. So it's been really good.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
The weather you mentioned, is it going to get hot?
And if it does get hot, how does that impact
the athletes and their performance? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, look, it's a performance. I guess it depends on
what your perspective is. It's probably the sleeping side of
it as all. The recovery is probably the most important
from that aspect. So we've got deconditioning facilities in the
rooms and were heating. This is the village in Saint Denis.
The other satellite locations have got deconditioning in their and
their hotel so they'll be fine. But from what the

(01:05):
long range or the ten day forecast. It's not really
looking to get overly hot. It's just really kind of nice.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Good. What about security? Can you still move?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah? Yeah, we can still move. So now we're going
to embedter security. The aison officer on the team, he's
been meeting with all the heads of security here in
the village and they've got sort of groups sort of
spread around. We actually don't really see it. They're not noticeable,
but they're ready to move should something happen. And then
when we were moving from our accommodation in the hotel

(01:33):
for the first two nights to the village, there's just
the real strong presence of police, you know, particularly as
we start getting into Saint Denis.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
When you get to a country the size of France
and you've been around the world of course, and places
like London or in New York, it's not like New Zealand,
it doesn't stop. The whole nation's not paying attention. Do
you get the sense that France will, in some way,
shape or form be genuinely interested in the Olympic Games
of twenty twenty four, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Think there will. Look, I think there's been a lot
of negativity about the games from the local population, as
I think it is for most games. But when push
comes to shove, when that opening ceremony happens, I think
they're going to be extremely proud of what they're putting
on and they'll just dog get in behind it. That's
what I think.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
What about the river, would you jump on the sane yourself?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Oh, i'd have a crack, I guess. I mean the
mered the other day. But we're chatting. We're just coming
back from dinner now and we're chatting out of dinner,
and nutrition has said, well, it's all really about to
swim in the ribbit. But what's happening now? You know
they are hostile on a drip, But I think we
had a bit of a downpour a couple of days ago.
It was quite. It was torrential, and I think that's

(02:36):
the issue. If it rains, it's going to have some
runoff and it's going to be problems. But the forecast
for the next teen days is dry. It's fine, So
it's going to take up to sort of you know,
close to the opening and trifling sort of early days.
So I guess we're just going to across the things.
It does stay dry, and that's going to help things
in that department.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Does that mess with athletes? I mean, if you don't
know where your venue is, is that a problem?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Look, I guess I mean and for triph and the
plan B if it's if it's that dangerous to swimming
is going to go to a jew as one. And
so clearly the swimmers or the strong swimmers of the
three disciplines, they're going to be pretty put out, whereas
you know the strong cyclist and runners they're going to
go well, happy days. So at the end of the day, though,

(03:22):
it is what it is, and you're just got to
come up with with what's put in front of you.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
What about the psychology. Have you had to get into
the ear of some of the young people.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Not yet, there's no no athletes arriving yet, so it's
been pretty pretty quiet on that front.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Will you have to talk to them about the size
of the event, expectation, managing it, all of those sort
of things. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Look, I've spoken to most of them since selection, and
particularly the new and younger first times. I'll say, well, look,
at the end of the day, you you're going to
you're very good at what you've done. You know, to
get to where you are now, So you just got
to just figure out what that was that got you
there and repeat it. But no, at the same time,

(04:05):
there's a lot of noise around, and you're going to
try and just let that flow over the top and
focus on what you can do.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
One hundred and ninety five athletes, twenty three sports, how
many medals?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Oh, look, that's a really good question, and I don't know.
Asked me in a month, and I'll tell you precisely.
But look, I think we'll get a fair share. There's
definitely going to be the ones who we think they
should get them, and they will, and there'll be others
that think, well we should get them, and they may not, right,
and there'll be everything else in between. And so yeah,
I think the I think you're going to realize is that,

(04:37):
as most people do, I guess is there's ten and
a half thousand athletes here all trying to do the
same thing, and they all can't get medals. And I
guess our job is to make sure that each athlete,
no matter where they place, is right up with the
with what the expectation or their ability is. Because you
look at let's face that they all can't stand on
the podium. It just doesn't work like that.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And that is the truth. Nigel, go well and all.
I'll stay in touch over the next couple of weeks.
Night to l Abury are Chef de mission by the
way of the one hundred ninety five, ninety eight males
ninety seven females, So the handwringers will be happy. Luca Jones,
Ellie Riley, Emma Twig. They're back for their fifth Olympic Games.
How cool is that? Youngest is eighteen year old Millie Cleig,
who kicks a football, and the oldest is forty five

(05:18):
year old Tim Rice, who of course rides a horse.
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