July 26, 2024 • 7 mins
New Zealand has shared a boat with Uzbekistan, Uganda, Oman, and Pakistan at the Olympic Games opening ceremony along the River Sein.
A New Zealand brigade of 77 athletes and support staff were on board, including a five-strong sailing contingent that made a 775-kilometre trip from their base in Marseille.
NZ Herald Sports Journalist Michael Burgess joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to preview day one of competition.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News talk EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're gossing it now to Paris where the Olympics have
actually finally started. He's standing there and now in the
chaos and I presume it is chaos of the opening ceremony.
Michael burgers out of his heel and herald. How's it
looking to your fella? Is it feeling good?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's looking great, mate, I mean, I mean, personally, I'm
just relieved that the actual sport, the games is, you know,
officially starting tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I can't wait for that. Of course, we've already had
some events because some of them started early, but.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It does feel like today is day one because since
this morning there's been a lot of chaos with the
dramas in France, with the arson on the railway lines
and all these people sort of trying to leave Paris
they can't, people trying to come to Paris they can't.
So there's been all that drama. The police in the
army are covering the streets. But the other thing you've
noticed today, Dars, is the influx of tourists. It just
(01:04):
seems to suddenly there's people come. I don't know where
they've come from, come from everywhere. All the supporters and
fans of all these different countries just just teaming through
the streets. So that's sort of a sign that, hey,
you know the games you here. You see tim tim
Usa jackets, see Bulgaria jackets, and it's in Cuba jackets.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
I've seen Indian fans.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
It's a really cool feeling that boom they've just arrived.
Because I guess the sports, you know, start for real tomorrow, thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Two sports across the board, So you're going to bring
in a whole lot of different kinds of sports fans,
aren't you. It's not just a football crowd or a
cricket crowd or whatever crowd. This is a very different
crowd of people to come together once every four years.
And I suppose that the essence of that is the
joy of sport to the global population. That's what we're feeling.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Well, I think you're right, mate.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I've talked to people who are like volleyball nuts, and
they don't travel anywhere else in four years to see volleyball,
but they come to the Olympics to see volleyball. I've
talked to people who are into into handball, you know,
and they want to come and see handball. And then
there's obviously the people that follow rowing or kayak or canoeing.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Their World champs are pretty big.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
But this is this is the real McCoy let alone,
or the track and field, the swimmings, and then you've
got the team sports. You know, there's there's a whole
lot going on. I reckon tend us to be quite
big here because of course Roland got offs.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You can't get a much bit of anu. The rugby's
being big.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
The football will be crazy because France is going well
with both teams.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
So yeah, there's a lot happening.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I haven't seen too many breakdancing fans, but I won't
be cynical.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Let's see. Let's see, mate, I won't be cic. I
sound like a dinosaur.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
We expect a full written report in the New Zealand
Herald about the vagaries of dancing, of breakdancing. Hey, once
the I mean ceremonies have finished and all tidied up
and they've swept the streets. It's all about the sport,
and New Zealand has involved in sport. We've got quite
a lot coming up on the first day, there's there's
single skulls, is the mean, there's the dressage and individual
(03:08):
of venting. What else have we got going on? I
mean there's a lot of sports to start off, and
that's keewi involvement.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Michael, it's a massive day one. It's a massive I
can't remember a bigger day one. As you say, We've
we've got rowing a question, We've got swimming, I've got
road cycling, a couple of finals and individual time trials,
got rugby sevens of.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Course, and tennis.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I guess the ones that stand up for me on
the first day because some of them we talk about
the heats, you know, the rowing heats of course, questrians
preliminaries and the rugby sevens unfortunately won't be playing for Metal.
But the ones that stand out will be tennis because
it'll be fascinating to see lou Louse Sun and Aaron
Rautliff in action the first round match, and of course
in tennis is doll die.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
You know, there's no preliminaries. If they don't win, they're out,
and they've got a very.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Tough draw against some Italian top Italian combination who will
be seated, so that'll be tough. And then the big
one really is Erica Fairweather in the four hundred meter
free style or she she did so well at the
World Championships early this year, although there were a couple
of big names missing, but she you know, logic says
(04:14):
she won't be a contender for gold or silver ahead
of ahead of the two really big guns, but she's
definitely contended for bron So that's I think that's going
to be messing up. I just love seeing kiwis and
swimming finals because it's been so rare down the years.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It has been. It's unusual to see. But we do
have a history. When you look back at Daniel Lader
and a huge success that he had what Atlanta back
in nineteen ninety six, it's not without president and I
think the success that our swimmers have had of recent
times at a top level, it should mean people are
excited about this because it's one race, it's a swim.
(04:51):
You get through your finals and you're there. You never
know what might happen, right, or is a bit more
cut and dry and swimming.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
No, it is.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I mean, and you make a good point, this new generation,
you know their time is coming. It might come, hopefully
have come of these games, but their time is coming.
And one of them made the point to me that
Erica Fairweather and Lewis Clarebet have lifted the standards so
much across the squad. So you know, in the old days,
a lot of the swimming used to be sort of
just making the Olympics and coming here and trying to
(05:18):
swim your best. But now it's got a lot further
than that. There's still bloody hard medals for New Zealand
to win. I mean you mentioned Daniel Loder. Of course
he won the silver Barcelona and those amazing golds in
Atlanta in ninety six, so there's twenty eight years. But
then apart from there, Anthony Moss in eighty eight and
Paul Kingsman in eighty eight. So I think from memory,
(05:40):
if you go back to nineteen fifty two, which is
seventy years, we've had three individuals on the podium Loader, Kingsman, Moss.
So it's just about the hardest sport for New Zealand
to win medals. But yeah, with fair and that's why
I think it's so special.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So with fair Weather and Clearbet especially and maybe a relay.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
There's some real hope and some real excitement about what
could be done in the pool in Paris, an.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Event of course that we've made our own. The rowing
Macintosh is in the single skulls today are also looking
at the single skulls in the Twig involved their high
metal hope and we've got the double skulls coming up
as well. So a lot of time to be spent rowing,
which is going to be wonderful for New Zealand because
(06:26):
this is a place we really do excel.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
We do.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I was speaking to the Rowing New Zealand CEO David
Meats yesterday actually, and he made the point that you
know it's actually been a difficult cycle and maybe a
year or so ago there was expectation they might only
qualify three or four crews, but here they are with
eight or nine cruise.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And they're going to be right in the mix.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I think the men's four are the outstanding combination, and
they are.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
If you're going to tip one in it, it's a
really good chance for gold.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I go with them Twig. You're looking at podium. Whether
it's gold, tilver, bronze, not sure, but you know you're
exactly right, mate, Rowing New Zealand. You just never never
count them out. The other fascinating thing about this team
is they've selected a lot of athletes from the States,
from the college system over there.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
So you know, it wasn't that long ago that we
had to train at Carapiro.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Remember in the Twigs, she tried to be in Europe
for a couple of years and sort of got kicked
off the team. But they've opened their eyes. I was
sort of feeling in parallels to all blacks. They've opened
their eyes and they said, right, you can actually go
and train anywhere.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
We'll select you.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
So this will be an interesting test case for Rowan
in terms of how they can blend in the overseas
based athletes with the athletes based in Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And it's all on the siren. The gong's been hit.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
We're going to go.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Michael Burgers, thanks so much for joining us, and we'll
carry on pestering you for the duration. Thanks very much
for your time.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
You're welcome, mate, and you know I look forward to
many more, many more chats dues.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk said Be on Saturday mornings,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News talk EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're gossing it now to Paris where the Olympics have
actually finally started. He's standing there and now in the
chaos and I presume it is chaos of the opening ceremony.
Michael burgers out of his heel and herald. How's it
looking to your fella? Is it feeling good?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's looking great, mate, I mean, I mean, personally, I'm
just relieved that the actual sport, the games is, you know,
officially starting tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I can't wait for that. Of course, we've already had
some events because some of them started early, but.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It does feel like today is day one because since
this morning there's been a lot of chaos with the
dramas in France, with the arson on the railway lines
and all these people sort of trying to leave Paris
they can't, people trying to come to Paris they can't.
So there's been all that drama. The police in the
army are covering the streets. But the other thing you've
noticed today, Dars, is the influx of tourists. It just
(01:04):
seems to suddenly there's people come. I don't know where
they've come from, come from everywhere. All the supporters and
fans of all these different countries just just teaming through
the streets. So that's sort of a sign that, hey,
you know the games you here. You see tim tim
Usa jackets, see Bulgaria jackets, and it's in Cuba jackets.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
I've seen Indian fans.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
It's a really cool feeling that boom they've just arrived.
Because I guess the sports, you know, start for real tomorrow, thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Two sports across the board, So you're going to bring
in a whole lot of different kinds of sports fans,
aren't you. It's not just a football crowd or a
cricket crowd or whatever crowd. This is a very different
crowd of people to come together once every four years.
And I suppose that the essence of that is the
joy of sport to the global population. That's what we're feeling.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Well, I think you're right, mate.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I've talked to people who are like volleyball nuts, and
they don't travel anywhere else in four years to see volleyball,
but they come to the Olympics to see volleyball. I've
talked to people who are into into handball, you know,
and they want to come and see handball. And then
there's obviously the people that follow rowing or kayak or canoeing.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Their World champs are pretty big.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
But this is this is the real McCoy let alone,
or the track and field, the swimmings, and then you've
got the team sports. You know, there's there's a whole
lot going on. I reckon tend us to be quite
big here because of course Roland got offs.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You can't get a much bit of anu. The rugby's
being big.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
The football will be crazy because France is going well
with both teams.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
So yeah, there's a lot happening.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I haven't seen too many breakdancing fans, but I won't
be cynical.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Let's see. Let's see, mate, I won't be cic. I
sound like a dinosaur.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
We expect a full written report in the New Zealand
Herald about the vagaries of dancing, of breakdancing. Hey, once
the I mean ceremonies have finished and all tidied up
and they've swept the streets. It's all about the sport,
and New Zealand has involved in sport. We've got quite
a lot coming up on the first day, there's there's
single skulls, is the mean, there's the dressage and individual
(03:08):
of venting. What else have we got going on? I
mean there's a lot of sports to start off, and
that's keewi involvement.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Michael, it's a massive day one. It's a massive I
can't remember a bigger day one. As you say, We've
we've got rowing a question, We've got swimming, I've got
road cycling, a couple of finals and individual time trials,
got rugby sevens of.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Course, and tennis.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I guess the ones that stand up for me on
the first day because some of them we talk about
the heats, you know, the rowing heats of course, questrians
preliminaries and the rugby sevens unfortunately won't be playing for Metal.
But the ones that stand out will be tennis because
it'll be fascinating to see lou Louse Sun and Aaron
Rautliff in action the first round match, and of course
in tennis is doll die.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
You know, there's no preliminaries. If they don't win, they're out,
and they've got a very.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Tough draw against some Italian top Italian combination who will
be seated, so that'll be tough. And then the big
one really is Erica Fairweather in the four hundred meter
free style or she she did so well at the
World Championships early this year, although there were a couple
of big names missing, but she you know, logic says
(04:14):
she won't be a contender for gold or silver ahead
of ahead of the two really big guns, but she's
definitely contended for bron So that's I think that's going
to be messing up. I just love seeing kiwis and
swimming finals because it's been so rare down the years.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It has been. It's unusual to see. But we do
have a history. When you look back at Daniel Lader
and a huge success that he had what Atlanta back
in nineteen ninety six, it's not without president and I
think the success that our swimmers have had of recent
times at a top level, it should mean people are
excited about this because it's one race, it's a swim.
(04:51):
You get through your finals and you're there. You never
know what might happen, right, or is a bit more
cut and dry and swimming.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
No, it is.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I mean, and you make a good point, this new generation,
you know their time is coming. It might come, hopefully
have come of these games, but their time is coming.
And one of them made the point to me that
Erica Fairweather and Lewis Clarebet have lifted the standards so
much across the squad. So you know, in the old days,
a lot of the swimming used to be sort of
just making the Olympics and coming here and trying to
(05:18):
swim your best. But now it's got a lot further
than that. There's still bloody hard medals for New Zealand
to win. I mean you mentioned Daniel Loder. Of course
he won the silver Barcelona and those amazing golds in
Atlanta in ninety six, so there's twenty eight years. But
then apart from there, Anthony Moss in eighty eight and
Paul Kingsman in eighty eight. So I think from memory,
(05:40):
if you go back to nineteen fifty two, which is
seventy years, we've had three individuals on the podium Loader, Kingsman, Moss.
So it's just about the hardest sport for New Zealand
to win medals. But yeah, with fair and that's why
I think it's so special.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So with fair Weather and Clearbet especially and maybe a relay.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
There's some real hope and some real excitement about what
could be done in the pool in Paris, an.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Event of course that we've made our own. The rowing
Macintosh is in the single skulls today are also looking
at the single skulls in the Twig involved their high
metal hope and we've got the double skulls coming up
as well. So a lot of time to be spent rowing,
which is going to be wonderful for New Zealand because
(06:26):
this is a place we really do excel.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
We do.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I was speaking to the Rowing New Zealand CEO David
Meats yesterday actually, and he made the point that you
know it's actually been a difficult cycle and maybe a
year or so ago there was expectation they might only
qualify three or four crews, but here they are with
eight or nine cruise.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And they're going to be right in the mix.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I think the men's four are the outstanding combination, and
they are.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
If you're going to tip one in it, it's a
really good chance for gold.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I go with them Twig. You're looking at podium. Whether
it's gold, tilver, bronze, not sure, but you know you're
exactly right, mate, Rowing New Zealand. You just never never
count them out. The other fascinating thing about this team
is they've selected a lot of athletes from the States,
from the college system over there.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
So you know, it wasn't that long ago that we
had to train at Carapiro.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Remember in the Twigs, she tried to be in Europe
for a couple of years and sort of got kicked
off the team. But they've opened their eyes. I was
sort of feeling in parallels to all blacks. They've opened
their eyes and they said, right, you can actually go
and train anywhere.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
We'll select you.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
So this will be an interesting test case for Rowan
in terms of how they can blend in the overseas
based athletes with the athletes based in Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And it's all on the siren. The gong's been hit.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
We're going to go.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Michael Burgers, thanks so much for joining us, and we'll
carry on pestering you for the duration. Thanks very much
for your time.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
You're welcome, mate, and you know I look forward to
many more, many more chats dues.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk said Be on Saturday mornings,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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