Fouhy paddles to calmer waters

AND SO IT ENDS. The career of a sportsman whose intensity, frankness and capacity for introspection made him better known for his world-class deeds in a kayak.
Ben Fouhy retired days before popular Waikato rower Nathan Twaddle, two fit men in their early 30s whose careers mirrored each other. Both stroked to world championship gold in their respective sports and had to settle for lesser medals at the Olympics.
Yet the controversy swirling around Taumarunui-born Fouhy to the very end has him garnering all the attention lately - he of the piercing visage, so often clenched in determination but rarely betraying a public smile; he who dared cross swords with a New Zealand sporting legend.
"Hopefully people will reflect on what I have achieved and realise that New Zealand kayakers can still make it at the highest level," Fouhy said this week.
"It's not that I'm going out trying to throw stones at people."
Both those statements carry only elements of truth.
Fouhy has always been tightlipped on his falling-out with former national coach and four-time Olympic gold medallist Ian Ferguson. But now, with an accumulated weight lifted from 31-year-old Fouhy's shoulders, the roles are reversed.
While Ferguson is uncontactable, Fouhy has unveiled his depth of feeling about a man he says simply is "not a very nice person", raising eyebrows with the accusation that the man revered as "Ferg" favoured his son Steven throughout his tenure as coach.
Fouhy is at pains to insist he was never the aggressor in the pair's breakdown, which became public fodder last March when Ferguson described the paddler as a "pain in the butt" and a complex personality.
"This public outburst was a reflection of what the relationship's been like behind closed doors and I guess he let his guard down," Fouhy says.
"Then it was made out that I had this big spat with him, which comes across as a bit childish.
"I believe if you have a difference of opinion, you do your utmost to resolve it.
"If it doesn't work then you don't throw your toys."
Fouhy is disappointed the world had to know about the nature of a relationship which had been rocky from the start.
A year after winning the 2003 world title, Fouhy says he was shocked to see the man he attributed with much of his success - Auckland physiologist Darrell Bonetti - blocked out of the build-up to his silver medal-winning paddle at the Athens Olympics.
"Ferg was trying to keep Darrell away because he didn't like Darrell, didn't want him around," Fouhy recalls.
"But Darrell was a key part of bridging the gaps that Ian had in his repertoire.
"And Ian had some amazing strengths but there were other areas where he wasn't strong because you can't be strong at everything.
"For me, I really believed in what I was doing when I won the world title.
"We had a team of people that was really special and I got a lot of energy from that.
"When I felt that was coming apart in 2004, it became quite difficult for me to maintain that level of energy.
"A lot of stuff happened that left me quite disenchanted before I even arrived in Athens.
"I really had the wind taken out of my sails by things I'd observed and it upset me and disappointed me."
Fouhy has mostly despised the environment he had to work in but has done his utmost to muffle it. Until now.
"Imagine if every day when you came to work and you were having a bad week that you told everyone in the office that you were chucking it. You don't. You put on a brave face and keep trucking on.
"But if you felt like that for a whole year, or for seven years, then, of course, you feel like saying something. It's been a challenge because I've thought about it the whole way through."
Fouhy's barbs aren't just directed at Ferguson snr.
He says Steven Ferguson was a contradictory figure last year when he vacated the national K1 1000m berth for the world championships, a decision that had helped prompt Fouhy to return from a premature retirement.
"What hasn't been reported is that Steven wanted a trial for the (K1) spot. He compared himself to Mahe Drysdale, even though he didn't actually want the spot.
"It's not that I want to have a crack at Steven - it's really his dad who's been trying to paint me as a villain."
Fouhy has found it hard to handle what he calls a "smear campaign" against him in the media. He says it was instigated by Ian Ferguson but voiced through others such as another former Olympic great, Alan Thompson.
Fouhy reckons the vitriol increased after he negotiated a Sparc-funded self-driven programme outside Canoe Racing New Zealand control last year, which ultimately led to Ferguson losing his job. "He [Ferguson] has been hiding behind other people. He's very good at influencing people."
Sparc general manager high performance Martin Toomey is in the camp of those who feel Fouhy has been unfairly portrayed as a troublesome character. "He has copped it from all sides at times. He has delivered at world championship and Olympic level and to do that you need a degree of single-mindedness that gets you across the line.
"He is definitely a very focused athlete. At times this is misconstrued as being difficult."
Others would strongly disagree and Fouhy concedes he is a complex personality.
Asked to reflect on his career highs - performances that have maintained a mainstream profile for canoeing for nearly a decade - he brushes past the early achievements, along with his world record 1000m time set in 2006 and a surprise fourth placing at the Beijing Olympics.
Instead, he lingers again on the undue influence of Ferguson.
"I was always at a very high level right through my career but I was very hard on myself because I wanted to win but it was just other things that drain your energy," he says.
"Every athlete is different. Some athletes don't think too deeply and that's fine. I respect that."
A return to kayaking won't happen. His passion is gone and he's "worn out" from years of off-water turbulence and strain for little financial reward.
He'll devote more time to his wife and probably turn his fitness obsession to age-group ironman competition.
"You get a lot of public scrutiny minus the pay cheque. When you're not enjoying it, not getting paid for it, not achieving your goals and constantly getting harrassed, it doesn't really add up any more," he says. "Leaving is tinged with sadness but that's life. We'd all like to die peacefully in our sleep but things don't always end the way you like. I've still got a lot to be grateful for."