KEY POINTS:
A modern day Olympics wouldn't be the same without a Waddell and the chances of that extending to London 2012 have just got better.
It might not be three-time Olympian and 2000 single sculls gold medallist and America's Cup grinder Rob Waddell who competes in London - although nothing would surprise - and it might not be in a rowing skiff.
Waddell's wife Sonia is re-inventing herself as a cyclist and has tentatively set her sights on competing in her third Olympic Games. She finished sixth and fifth respectively in the singles sculls in Sydney and Athens.
What started out as a way to get fit only three months ago after the birth of their third child has morphed into a serious dose of "the bug". Just last weekend she finished second in the time trial and fifth in the road race at the national road cycling championships in Te Awamutu.
She finished behind Melissa Holt in both events but ahead of favourite Joanne Kiesanowski in the road race, despite working the hardest of anyone to pull in a breakaway.
"Absolutely, if I was good enough," Waddell said when asked if London was on her mind. "The biggest question is how much potential I have in me and I have absolutely no idea.
"If I keep on improving like I am, and I get to the point where I think I can be competitive at that level, then I will absolutely be jumping at the chance."
If she competed in London, she would be the fourth athlete behind Steven Ferguson (swimming/kayaking), Madonna Harris (cycling/cross-country skiing) and Chris Nicholson (speed skating/cycling) to compete at the Olympics at two different sports. Sprinter Chris Donaldson could join that list if he goes to next year's Winter Olympics in the four-man bobsleigh.
A change of sport is not uncommon for Waddell, who represented New Zealand in the 400m hurdles at the 1990 World Junior Athletics Championships.
Husband Rob, who staged his own comeback to rowing last year to compete in Beijing and will be racing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series this month, pushed her into her latest adventure.
He had always thought Sonia would make a good cyclist and encouraged her to answer a newspaper advertisement for elite athletes to try out for the Power to the Podium programme initiated by Bike NZ in the hope of putting together a world-class women's track cycling team.
Skater Nicole Begg, runner Kate McIlroy and mountainbike rider Vanessa Quin put their names forward along with Waddell, as well as former New Zealand BMX and mountainbike champion and world championship road cycling representative Katie Boyd.
"At that stage I hadn't even been on a bike and hadn't done anything since Athens," Waddell explains. "I hadn't cycled and was very unfit.
"Within three weeks of putting my name down I had to do the first lot of testing. I tested okay but not well enough to be one of the top three to go through, which wasn't really a surprise.
"But the selectors said if I was good enough, I would be able to come through the normal channels anyway. I was loving the cycling so I decided to keep going and see how I went at nationals."
Well, as it turned out, and Waddell admits she shocked herself.
Her inexperience was a curse and a blessing in the road race. She initiated a lot of the work done by the peleton in chasing a breakaway which put her in a position to win but also saw her expend energy that could have proved the difference in a sprint.
The biggest asset she has is her training base from her countless hours rowing up and down Lake Karapiro.
"I have been very fortunate in that I have a huge training base behind me with my years in rowing and athletics," she says. "I have the advantage of having been an athlete who has trained at the highest level so I know how to train and apply myself. I know how to approach racing. It's just adapting all that to a new sport.
"I have made some big gains really quickly. Off a very small amount of training, I have got myself to a national level and I have no idea where I will be able to go from here, whether the gains will be small or large or somewhere in between."
She's now contemplating competing in a tour event, as well as next month's track nationals in Wanganui.
Bike NZ high performance manager Mark Elliott admits they are taking a keen interest in Waddell's progress.
"The key thing for her is to produce the results," he says. "It was an impressive start.
"We see her future on the track. Road cycling is a big game of chess and takes years of experience to
master. In pursuiting, it's just you and the clock. But there are the finer points of pursuiting to learn, not least of all banking on a 45-degree track at speed."
Waddell is still some way off forcing her way into the national side, which this weekend is competing in Beijing at a World Cup meeting.
Bike NZ is keen to replicate the success of the men's pursuit team, which finished third in last year's Olympics, and is hoping, through the Power to the Podium programme, to build a strong team around the immensely talented Alison Shanks.
Elliott believes this country has 10 women who are "potentially world-class" and large gains can be made.
Whether Waddell can join that group is uncertain but, at 35 and with a brood of children, she is keeping things in perspective.
"I am at a stage of my life and sporting career where I am doing this very much for my own enjoyment," she says. "If I didn't enjoy it I would stop. But I am a competitive person and as long as I am improving, I will keep setting my goals that little bit higher each time.
"I don't know where it's going to take me. My family is still my No 1 priority. Rob is very busy with his own sporting career but you have a limited life span at the elite level in sport and I want to make the most of it.
"There's no reason why Rob and I can't fit the family around both our goals and our dreams."
