Aaron Gate: New Zealand Olympic track cyclist on being selected as an Olympic Flagbearer for the opening ceremony

It's a proud moment for two athletes after being named New Zealand's flag bearers for the 2024 Olympic games. 

Track cyclist Aaron Gate and sailing athlete Jo Aleh were formally announced at a ceremony this morning. 

Two-time Olympian Jo Aleh won gold at London 2012 and Silver in Rio 2016, while four-time Olympian Aaron Gate won Bronze at London 2012. 

Gate told Mike Hosking it's a special moment, and one that's taken him by surprise. 

He says 1956 was the last time a track cyclist was named New Zealand's flag bearer, so it's great for his team and for cycling in general. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Olympics aren't even open yet because they need some
flag bearers for that, which I have been announced this morning.
So it is Joe Lah and Aaron Gate who get
the honors. Aaron Gate is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning, Good morning to you as well.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And warmers, congratulations. Tell us how these things work? You're
not even in Paris, so how does this work?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Not quite? No, So I was lucky enough to have
some of the members, Nigel and some of the media
team shoot out to see us at our training camp
and in Switzerland where we are at the moment, and yeah,
did some media stuff and ticked all the boxers and
I jump on a train first thing tomorrow morning and
shoot across to Paris for the big afternoon. But yeah,

(00:39):
just had our final final day training on the boards
here with the team Pursuit fellows and we had a
good session. And now it's yeah, the sort of tapist
starts now, so to speak.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Fantastic. How does it feel?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Oh, it's pretty surreal. I don't think it's fully sunk
in yet. To be honest, it's not something that I
ever expected or had even thought about until it was
quite funny. One of my one of my mates Patti Bevern,
who's also races pushed bikes. He was like, oh, yeah,
I was talking talking to Abby and we reckon you
could be the flag bearer and I was like ah.

(01:14):
I laughed it off, and then literally a week later
Nigel called me and out of the blue and I
was like, oh, if you'd be interested, I was like, oh,
I just sort of yeah. I took a bit to
sinker and it's for sure and yeah, like I said,
I still don't think it tull he has.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Good, good, good stuff. Having said that, how long have
you had to keep it a secret? And how hard
was that?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I was? I it has been a little while now,
but I definitely wasn't telling mum and dad because Mum
can't be trusted with these sort of things. He was
doing it the other day, Sorry Mum, but no, I
had to discuss it with my teammates. That was a
big part of it because it did change our leading
by a few days because we don't compete until the

(01:56):
last week of the game, so we weren't going to
be in Paris and time. But the boys really supportive
and I think it's a special thing for our squad
and for cycling in general. I was looking back through
the history box. It was nineteen fifty six when we
had the last track cyclist as a flag bearer. So
it's pretty cool to be able to have that in

(02:16):
cycling again for our sport, and not that the Olympics
is just about cycling. It's yeah, a proud moment for
me to lead the whole team. I think it's going
to be a very exciting games for us as a nation.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Good stuff. Do you know how it's going to work
given it's on the river?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, I've heard. I only found out recently it was
on boats, which is great for me. I'm not a
great walker, better at peddling my legs, so I'm hoping
I'll get to do a lot of time sitting down
and just and using the upper body to swing that
flag proudly. So I'm not one hundred for cent show
it's going to work yet, but I'm looking forward to
the looking forward to the experience, and I'm sure it

(02:54):
will be spectacular. Knowing the French.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, what's your I mean, you're four times now, so
it's not like this is news you. The flag is,
but the games isn't. Is it better to get to Paris?
Get in the village and get into it as opposed
to you know, training from outside.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, it's a bit of It's always been a bit
of a mix for us. Like in London we had
the full experience, we had the vlodrome literally on the
back door of the of the building we were staying
in the in the main Olympic village, and then Rio
similar again, but Tokyo was very different experience, not just
for us obviously with how segregated everything was, but we
were out in a little satellite village and we're kind

(03:30):
of in the same same position again. This time we're
out in the sort of a suburb on the outskirts
of Paris where the existing velodrome is staying and basically
a normal hotel. So it's a bit of a removed experience,
which has its pros and cons. It makes it more
like just like mentally, we go into kind of just
a more normal competition. It's you know, you don't have

(03:51):
the big distractions of the massive food hall and and
everything else that goes with the Olympics. A but unfortunately
we do kind of miss out on some of those
experiences as well. But I mean we're there to ride
our bikes as fast as possible, which is the first job,
and this is you know, this experience for me is
just kind of icing on the cake and one that
I'm still not taking lightly. That's for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Good on. You're going to win some metal.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I definitely hope. So that's what we're going there to do.
So yeah, me and the boys have been training hard
and putting our best foot forward so far, so looking
forward to getting stuck in now. I think we're going
fast than we ever have. So it's all the signs
are putting in the right direction. We kind of just
have to see how fast our competitors are going now too, All.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Right, exactly, all right, go well mate. Congratulations again Aaron Gate,
who is Olympian number eleven forty six by the way,
along with Joela who's Olympian number nine to nine to two
and multi medal winner of course out of Europe for
us this morning. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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