Agosto 7, 2008
Team Captain
Well its been quite a crazy week since I was last in touch each day has basically involved sleeping, eating, bussing to venue, rowing, eating, resting, rowing, bussing home, eating and sleeping. That has pretty much filled our days and there hasn’t been much time for anything else.
On a positive note the most important thing is going well (the rowing). A few days ago Ferg and I had a chat and have since worked on a couple of very small changes in my technique which seems to be making a difference to how the boat is running in training. Ferg is much happier, one of the onlookers said I looked like my old self and a different sculler to a few days ago and speeds in training have improved. So all positive, just need to take that into racing.
Everything else is going along great, we left the village for the hotel near the course today, the smog is getting thicker and I will shortly publish “smog watch” on my blog so u can see for yourself. I think I am acclimatised to the heat now, as it doesn’t seem to affect me nearly as much anymore and finally we are starting to freshen up a little as the training gets slightly easier and we feel ready to race.
Finally, the most exciting news from my point of view is; Tonight I was named captain of the NZ Olympic team and therefore will carry the flag at the opening ceremony tomorrow night. I am very excited. For those in NZ it will be a late night as we will be the 189th of 205 countries to march into the stadium. I am very honoured and excited to be given this privilege and hope that by the end of the week I have achieved to the level of some of my predecessors. This is our biggest Olympic team with 182 athletes, but also our best prepared Olympic team (thanks largely to SPARC’s investment over the last four years), when you look at the results over the last few years it is probably the strongest team we have ever sent to the Olympics and the NZOC has done a great job in creating an environment conducive to performance . That is why I am confident the whole team can perform with distinction and feed off each others results so we can become the most successful team ever.
I hope to lead by example, but have by no means lost sight of how I may do that. I am completely focused on improving everyday and performing to the best of my ability each time I race, as that is what I can control and I look forward to seeing all the other athletes doing the same, cant wait to see everyone competing.
Anyway that is the news for now, I am really looking forward to tomorrow and the opening ceremony. I will be back with a rundown of that and results from the heats on Saturday.
Mahe
