Gisborne's Sydnee Andrews, at just 21 years of age, will add another chapter to the city's proud Olympic Games history in Paris. Andrews goes into the Games with an Olympic and world ranking of 27 in the women's +78 kilograms weight category, but has beaten much higher-ranked judoka. “Being speechless for me isn’t a thing but I can’t find the words to describe how I’m feeling right now,” Andrews said at the announcement yesterday.
Firm parental guidance at a critical time paid off for Sydnee Andrews, who will represent New Zealand in judo at the Paris Olympics.
Andrews, 21, started going to Gisborne Judo Club training when she was 5 and was a model of perseverance, except for one brief interlude.
It was her first year of high school and she told her mother, Michelle Lexmond, that she was going to leave judo.
Michelle recalled the exchange.
“I said, ‘What are you going to do?’
“She said, ‘I’m going to do hip-hop.’
“I said, ‘No you’re not. You are staying put.’
“Sometimes kids think it (judo) is not cool any more. She’d probably thank me now.”
Sydnee is the younger of two daughters of Darren Andrews and Michelle Lexmond. Elder daughter Alex pursued other sporting interests.
While both parents did their share of drop-off/pick-up duty for judo training, Michelle says she was probably the escort for Sydnee’s first lesson.
What made them think of judo as a sport for her?
“She was very strong, even as a little three-year-old,” Michelle said.
“When she was four, she pushed her grandmother off a chair.
“We thought, ‘We’ll utilise that.’ Judo seemed to be an affordable option, as well. She loved it.”
Asked about her daughter’s plans for judo after the Olympics, Michelle said she seemed to want to carry on.
“She said, ‘This is my first Olympics,’ so she hopes to do more. I’ll have to sell a kidney if that happens.”
That won’t be necessary, although parental support is a given.
Gisborne Judo Club coach Jason King says Andrews is funded by High Performance Sport New Zealand “because she has been getting the results”.
Kiki Velloza, a former Gisborne Judo Club coach who also coached New Zealand women’s teams, had a contact at the Camberley Judo Club. Arrangements were made for Sydnee to train there because of its status within the sport and its proximity to the European tournaments Sydnee needed to contest if she was to qualify for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Just under 50km southwest of central London, the town of Camberley boasts a recreational judo club that doubles as a full-time, elite judo training centre with live-in athletes, of which Sydnee is one. She has been based there for nearly three years.
“She picked up a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games and followed that up with three or four European Cup medals, and bronze in the Pan American Open last year,” King said.
“The International Judo Federation has a world tour for all the top athletes . . . that level has prize money. In Croatia, Sydnee picked up the bronze medal. The commentators said Andrews from New Zealand had made history by winning a medal at a world tour event.
“She has beaten the world No 4, No 5, No 8 and No 11. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realise what she has done.”
Asked what made Andrews so good, King said she’d never had any fear about the opposition she faced. She walked into tournaments in Europe with the same confidence she’d had walking into tournaments in New Zealand.
“At that stage, she was only a brown belt fighting black belts,” he said.
“They can be world champions, and she will say, ‘I’ll have a go’. With that attitude she has bounced a few. The look on their faces . . . ‘Who the hell is this Kiwi girl?’
“She’s still young. Give her another three or four years at that level and she will be unbelievable.”
King said he remembered Andrews as a young white belt.
“She has had to work hard, but she’s always had that little bit of grunt.”
Sometimes talented athletes showed promise – as if they had done it before – and often they went on to other codes.
“Those who say, ‘This is me,’ and stick it out end up getting the rewards.
“Sydnee was determined. She didn’t get the results a lot of other kids were getting when she was very young but the results started coming in later. You could see then that she had it.”
Andrews, who attended Mangapapa School, Gisborne Intermediate and Gisborne Girls’ High, will be Gisborne Judo Club’s second Olympian. The first was Darcina Manuel at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
The club has had four athletes at Commonwealth Games – Tracy Down at Auckland in 1990, King’s partner Mellissa Jones at Manchester in 2002, Manuel at Glasgow in 2014, and Andrews at Birmingham. Manuel and Andrews won Commonwealth Games bronze.
King has been club coach since 1996, when he took over from his father Dave, who had been coach since the 1970s. The club was formed in 1953.
Paris will have a solid Gisborne presence for the Olympics. Jason King and Mellissa Jones will be present when Andrews competes on August 2, and Michelle Lexmond and Darren Andrews will be there, too.
Sydnee’s cousin Kelsey Teneti will be in the vicinity, as reserve for the women’s sevens team, as will her parents Kelvin and Louise Teneti (Louise and Michelle are sisters).
Other Gisborne athletes who will be at the Olympics are Alicia Hoskin (canoeing), Saffi Vette (surfing, in Tahiti), Tayler Reid (triathlon reserve), Zach Ferkins (canoeing reserve) and Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai (in the demonstration sport of Muay Thai).
Gisborne hockey umpire Amber Church will officiate at the Games.
Andrews is one of two New Zealand judoka heading to Paris. Moira Koster will compete in her second Olympic Games 12 years after her first.
Inmates at New Zealand's prisons will have the same menu as last year on Christmas Day.