KEY POINTS:
Boardsailor Barbara Kendall is hoping to do more than win a fourth Olympic medal at the Beijing Games next year.
Kendall, who already has the full complement of a gold, a silver and a bronze from four previous Olympics, also wants to enjoy her time at the yachting venue of Qingdao.
"Obviously you want to go there to win because you wouldn't be doing all this training and spending hours of sweat and tears," she said today.
"But the secondary goal for me is to enjoy it. When you get to the Olympics, the nerves hit in and the expectation can be overwhelming and you don't really enjoy it.
"This time I really want to go there and have fun and enjoy it for what it is."
Kendall, 40, was one of five sailors confirmed today as the first members of the New Zealand Olympic team.
The others were fellow boardsailor Tom Ashley, and dinghy competitors Jo Aleh (Laser radial), Andrew Murdoch (Laser) and Dan Slater (Finn).
Ashley competed in Athens in 2004, finishing 10th, while Slater was eighth in Sydney in 2000.
Aleh and Murdoch will be making their Olympic debuts.
Murdoch's inclusion comes after he missed out the last time around when his legal bid to overturn the selection of Hamish Pepper ultimately failed.
Kendall said getting early confirmation of selection was crucial for athletes.
While she "kind of knew" a few months ago that another Olympic adventure was on the cards, "it's good to get that final tick".
"You can work out your days, your training plans, your schedule, your budget. It's great."
It was the second milestone in two weeks for the Aucklander, after she was named as one of the first six inductees into the International Sailing Federation's new Hall of Fame.
Kendall will compete in the boardsailing world championships in Auckland in January, after which her preparations will take her to Europe in March or April.
She is bracing for a physically tough time at Qingdao, because of the expected light conditions there next August.
"For me, it's going to be an incredibly physical event, because the winds are very light, so one of the priorities for me is recovery," she said.
"The other is the emotional factor of competing in the Olympics. It comes down to you and to getting into the zone, the right head space."
Kendall said she was adapting well to the new RS:X board to be used at an Olympics for the first time.
She was happy with her speed in medium and strong winds and had been developing her skills in the light airs.
"I've been working on that now for the last three for four months and I think I'm perfectly suited to the board now," she said.
"These boards require a lot of tactics, and there's quite a bit of positioning and technique involved, and my experience is going to be priceless."
Despite being almost two decades at the top, Kendall said she had no problems with continued motivation.
"I think I'm a bit weird," she laughed.
"I have no problems with motivating myself. I have more problems in being too hard on myself."
Yachting New Zealand chief executive Des Brennan said New Zealand were unlikely to be represented in all 11 sailing events, but he expected three or four other crews to be selected in the coming month.
"It won't be a full deck, but it will be a capable deck," he said.
Yachting is New Zealand's second most successful Olympic discipline after athletics.
But Athens provided a wake-up call when the sailors brought home no medals for the first time since 1976, with Kendall's placing of fifth the best.
"It was a big warning to us that we had probably been sitting on our laurels for a number of Olympics," Brennan said.
"We had some medals but we had not done particularly well overall and the only class that was holding the honour up was the boards."
He said YNZ had overhauled its organisation and redefined its goals over the past three years, "all with some pain".
Among the changes were the formation of smaller Olympic squad, better coaching and the move to early selection.
New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary-general Barry Maister said the New Zealand team next year would number around 150 and include the country's 1000th Olympian.
- NZPA
