Olympics: Officials work hard on team spirit

By DAVID LEGGAT

Fencer Jessica Beer is one of five New Zealand athletes heading for Athens as sole representatives of their sport.

If you're a member of the Tall Blacks, the hockey or swimming squads you have soulmates to fall back on, roommates you've been training with for months, if not years.

But what if you are Beer, judoka Rochelle Stormont, archer Ken Uprichard, taekwondo exponent Verina Wihongi or boxer Soulan Pownceby? The New Zealand management are making every effort to avoid the case of the lonely athlete.

Former Olympic rower Chris White and former Black Sticks captain Anna Lawrence will be in charge of athlete liaison in Athens.

"We've spent time with some of those people already to assure them that they can be as much a part of the team as they want to be," he said. "Some obviously will want to hunker down and have some space at times, but they'll also want to be part of the bigger team."

White said the issue was how to integrate individuals with members of a larger sports team. There have been instances in the past of individuals becoming almost de facto members of a multi-member team.

"In some cases it's just about putting names to faces. It would be fair to say a lot of [New Zealand chef de mission] Dave Currie's initiatives in the last couple of years have been about good communication skills.

"We've had a lot of conferences where people have had the opportunity to discuss issues that may apply to them so when we get to the Games we hit the ground running."

One specific example of making the individual athletes welcome is setting aside a corner of the enormous athletes' dining hall so when competitors walk in they know to turn right to find a batch of Silver Ferns for company.

"It gives you someone to immediately go and chew the fat with. It's just little things like that that can be the difference between things running smoothly and things being a bit bumpy."

White acknowledged New Zealanders tend to be among the more resilient athletes around. By and large they were self-sufficient. "That's not to say we don't need help from time to time but most Kiwis are capable of acquitting themselves pretty well in different environments."