OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS: Peter Burling, left, and Blair Tuke celebrate winning gold at the Rio Olympics. PHOTO/FILE
OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS: Peter Burling, left, and Blair Tuke celebrate winning gold at the Rio Olympics. PHOTO/FILE
Year in Review
Every four years the sporting world is captivated unlike any other time by the wonder that is the Olympic Games.
Despite boycotts, terrorist threats, drug cheating, too many new sports added and the outrageous cost of hosting the event, nothing has shifted the Olympic Games from its mantle as the most important sporting event on earth.
This year's spectacular in Rio de Janeiro matched any before it on so many levels, with the Western Bay of Plenty at the forefront of a high achieving New Zealand team that won 18 medals.
Athletes who grew up or live in our little sporting Mecca provided some of the most memorable and enduring memories from Rio.
Gold medals were won by 49er sailor Peter Burling and rower Mahe Drysdale, silver medals by Luuka Jones, in the women's slalom K1, Molly Meech, in the women's 49erFX, and NZ Sevens women's coach Sean Horan, with Laser sailor Sam Meech winning bronze.
Mike Dawson, who finished a creditable 10th in Rio and grew up paddling the Wairoa River with Jones, was one of the first people to congratulate her at the K1 slalom course.
"I am not a really emotional guy but there were tears welling up in my eyes when I realised Luuka was going to have a medal," he said.
"It meant a lot because we both started (at Waimarino Adventure Park). I have seen her since she was 10 or 11-years-old, just battling away and having some failures and just keeping on going.
"When you have been involved in that it is amazing to be able to share at the elation she had in the finish line. It shows Kiwis can do it on the world stage when you put in the effort and the time and are determined."
Honourable mention to the gold and bronze medals won by kayaker Lisa Carrington, who is from Whakatane but competes for Mount Maunganui during the surf life saving season.
INSPIRATIONAL: Luuka Jones won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics. PHOTO/FILE
With such a line-up of success the unofficial Bay of Plenty Times Sportsperson of the Year has to come from this group - and it has to be Burling.
He and teammate Blair Tuke won the gold medal with unprecedented ease.
Their 43-point winning margin across 13 races is the largest of any Olympic sailing event since the modern scoring system was introduced in 1968.
Burling and Tuke were honoured with leading the New Zealand team into the Opening Ceremony as flag bearers.
Burling turns 26 tomorrow and it seems inconceivable someone so young could have achieved so much.
Rio was his third Olympics. In 2008 in China he became New Zealand's youngest Olympic sailor aged 17 when he finished 11th in the Men's 470 class.
In London 2012 he and Tuke won the silver medal in the 470 to start of a run of success that may never be matched in sailing.
They were crowned world champions in all four consecutive years since London and won all 28 of the major regattas in the 49er class.
Not content with just rewriting history in the 49er, Burling took over from Dean Barker as helmsman of Team New Zealand in the America's Cup World Series with his best mate Tuke part of the crew.
Burling is a humble man with no airs and graces.
He spent five years at Tauranga Boys' College battling with a similar character called Kane Williamson for the major sports prizes.
He loves to motivate young sailors at the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club when he can.
"It is a really good place to learn and grow up. I don't spend as much time yachting down there as I would like but I really enjoy getting home and hanging out there. It is a pretty cool place," Burling said.
Burling was named Sportsman of the Year Award and prestigious Supreme Award at the annual Bay of Plenty Sports Awards in November in recognition of his outstanding year.
Perhaps the best indication of the values that make Burling and Tuke who they are, came from a Danish sailor in race one at the Rio Olympics.
"In race one, when DEN were way ahead and went in the wrong direction, NZL shouted and screamed from their second position to make DEN realise that they were going in the wrong direction," he said.
"This even though NZL knew that DEN would be a gold contender. Respect!"
Respect indeed.
Final mention for road cyclist Fraser Sharp, who has battled the odds for most of his life after nearly being killed in an accident while training on his bike as a teenager in 1994.
Sharp, who lives in Tauranga, was unlucky to be left out of the initial NZ Paralympics team for Rio.
