She has stated before that, if people don't fully support the direction the bus is headed and are going to disrupt it, they need to get off. That's not to say she doesn't embrace input from others - quite the opposite - but once the plan is in place, they all have to be pulling in the same direction. And all the while, she's driving it.
It's actually an analogy many of our top athletes will apply, and is part of the support strategy provided by High Performance Sport New Zealand and Pathway to Podium, even locally for some of our budding stars, the message is delivered by Athlete Life advisers and performance psychologists Criss Strange and Wanda Douglas.
Obviously the strategy applied to our younger people (not just athletes) is about accelerating the development of independence and responsibility.
It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. It takes time, so the sooner the young people begin to take it on, the better.
Regan Gough, our local Waipukurau hero, is a classic case of a young man who developed independence and self-reliance at a pretty young age. His parents obviously did a good job, and growing up in a rural community generally seems to help, but it was definitely noticeable during his time in our Hawke's Bay Pathway to Podium programme how he took ownership of everything at every opportunity.
Regan has shown incredible resilience to overcome a number of health setbacks over the last year or so, to now have made the Olympics as part of the cycling men's team pursuit line-up, less than two years after leaving CHB College.
So, yes, he is a perfect example of being responsible for his own pathway, no blaming, no excuses. The sooner young athletes can learn to drive their own bus, the better.
The development of athletes is far more than a physical realm, the life skills and routines are a critical part of any long-term programme, not just for those aiming to excel in sport, but for anyone wanting to excel in life!
Part of that development is ensuring they are well prepared to handle adversity - to expect the unexpected in sport and in life.
And that is where Valerie is at now, she is about as well prepared in that regard as anyone could be. You never know what will unfold on competition day; in life there are no guarantees. But Valerie and her team know they have developed as much independence in her as they can, that even with her coach falling over at this late stage, she is driving the bus, and the bus will go on.
Valerie has had many challenges before, where last-minute changes on competition day have stressed her out and upset her preparation, but through all that she has learned to be adaptable and not too reliant on her routines.
So perhaps rather than helicopter parenting and organising everything, allow a bit of chaos, it could be a good thing, enabling the kids to develop that adaptability, and learning to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Beware the hindering hand.
People will typically look at elite athletes and say "wow, what a talent", but ideally we also recognise the "wow, imagine all the hard work and planning she has put in".
So after all the highs and lows of her London campaign in 2012, where thanks to drugs Ostapchuk temporarily took gold and received the honour of having her Belarusian flag raised and national anthem played in front of 80,000 fans, hopefully this time Valerie gets that honour, with an unprecedented third successive gold medal for New Zealand.
■Marcus Agnew leads Talent Development and the Pathway to Podium for AUT Millennium Hawke's Bay. He is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
