Athletics: From lifter to selector - and now curler

Bruce Cameron laughs loudly when it is suggested he might miss selection for his brother's two-man curling team.

For a man whose selection decisions have moulded New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth teams for nearly 30 years, the thought of being under the microscope himself is foreign.

Now the former Commonwealth Games weightlifter and Junior All Black will have more time to master the icy art of curling - if his brother will have him.

"It's not an option," said Cameron's wife Lynn.

"He's that determined and competitive there's no doubt he would make the [curling] team."

Cameron, 63, yesterday ended 34 years of service to Olympic and Commonwealth movement - first as a competitor, then selector and administrator.

Whatever his role, his dogged approach to life and sport always shone through.

Even as he resigned from the board at the New Zealand Olympic Committee general assembly yesterday, he displayed the grim determination that reaped two Commonwealth Games weightlifting bronze medals.

Cameron made headlines last year when he resigned in protest from the NZOC selection panel after 27 years when the women's basketball side were selected for the Athens Olympics.

He said he was "upset and disgusted" at their selection, saying it was undeserved because they had not met the criteria.

The Tall Ferns later stunned their critics and fans by reaching the quarterfinals after some giant-killing performances.

Cameron yesterday did not not lament his stance, arguably the most notorious in a distinguished sporting legacy.

"No regrets at all," Cameron said.

In fact the pocket-sized powerhouse believed it exemplified his stance as a selector.

"I like to think it showed my integrity and honesty to face difficult issues and make hard decisions at times.

"That's what you have to do in life. If you take all the soft options you'll soon have a soft underbelly and become a soft organisation."

Browsing his sporting resume, it is evident he could not be accused having of a soft underbelly himself.

When injury curtailed a promising rugby career, which included a stint with the Junior All Blacks in 1964, he switched to weightlifting.

Nine months later he made the New Zealand team for the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica.

Medal success came in 1970 at Edinburgh, and at his final Games in Christchurch four years later.

He never made an Olympic team, but his failure to qualify for the 1972 Munich Games characterised his determination.

"I was up to my last clean-and-jerk. I cleaned the weight, then jerked above my head and then just blacked out, stumbled, and dropped the weights.

"That was the end of it. I was extremely close [to qualifying], but I didn't cry about it. I just said in two years time I've got a Commonwealth Games to compete in."

His personal best and clean-and-jerk was 152kg, while weighing in at 65kg. He stands little taller than 1.6m.

After Christchurch in 1974 he turned his attention to selection, standing as a candidate in 1977, going on to select seven Olympic Winter Games teams, seven summer Olympics teams and squads for seven Commonwealth Games.

He became an Olympic Committee board member in 1995, serving two terms as vice-president.

The spur behind his long commitment to the Olympic and Commonwealth Games movement came from a philosophy that many pundits believe has been lost in the era of professional sport.

"One of the driving things was the pride in the New Zealand blazer," he said.

"The pride that you've won that blazer. You're not a basketballer, weightlifter or track and field athlete, you're part of a team representing not just that sport, but the whole country. So it's important we have the right and best people there to bring credit and honour to New Zealand and in most cases we've achieved that."

Cameron admitted he was old-school and prone to wear his convictions on his sleeve.

The introduction of various sporting tribunals and modernising processes that could lead to selections being challenged signalled his time was up, he said.

While he valued debate and discussion, he rued the passing of an era "when your word was your bond and they would accept it".

He cited the 28 challenges made to the Australian Olympic Committee, and last year's case of three New Zealand sailors who challenged Yachting New Zealand's Olympic nominations and took the organisation to the Court of Arbitration.

Yachting NZ eventually won the case, but it cost it $100,000."

As for his personal highlights, Cameron ranked swimmer Danyon Loader's gold medals in the 200m and 400m freestyle at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as his favourite moment.

"He was under-appreciated [in New Zealand] and no one understood who he was, but as an athlete he was just outstanding."

- NZPA