KEY POINTS:
If you want to know about Olympian dedication to your sport consider young gymnast Misha Koudinov.
The 16-year-old is just back from becoming the first New Zealander to reach a World Cup final, having finished eighth in the Shanghai round of the international circuit.
And this was no
lightweight competition. Koudinov was flinging himself about with some of the world's finest, notably the leading Chinese, who will figure prominently when the Olympic medals are handed out at the brand spanking National Indoor Stadium next August.
Will he fulfil his ambition and qualify for Beijing? It'll be tough, and in that he has plenty of company among the Games' hopefuls in the coming months.
But for Koudinov, 1.58m and 50.5kg and a fifth former at Westlake Boys High, there's no gain without buckets of sweat.
His routine at the North Harbour gym each week goes like this:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 7.30-8.30am, and again 3.30pm to 8pm; Tuesday and Thursday 3.30-8pm; Saturday noon to 4pm. Sunday? His day of rest.
But Koudinov is not complaining. He began gymnastics at age 7 shortly after emigrating from Vladivostok to New Zealand with his gymnastic coach parents Alexandra and Sacha.
He loves the life and it's apparent he is richly gifted, even if the demands of the training impact on school life.
"Sometimes if I have a lot of homework I might do some at lunchtime," he said.
At the World Cup, Koudinov scored 13.3 points to make the top eight, and finished 14th in the pommel horse, 16th on the parallel bars and 17th on the horizontal bar.
Teammates Mark Holyoake, the current national champion, and Daniel Good both had top 12 placings, not enough to make finals, but decent results.
Koudinov's mark could have been even better.
"I rolled my ankle two days prior to the competition. It's still pretty sore. It did downgrade my score slightly."
There's no doubt Koudinov is the country's most exciting young gymnast, but he, and Holyoake and Good, need to be at the world champs in Stuttgart early next month. It is the Olympic qualifying event this year.
But there's a snag. It's going to cost about $2000 to get each athlete there; about $4500 including a coach. And Gymnastic New Zealand's kitty is running low. Wheels are in motion. Gymnastics has not got funding support, but Government agency Sparc can expect a call.
But getting to Stuttgart is only the first part. The Olympic programme has medals in allround and each individual discipline, but Koudinov needs to get into the top 24 in the allround to get the chance to make the floor final. Putting up a top mark on the floor alone won't be enough.
He's not optimistic - "it's going to be really difficult" - but he's desperate to get an opportunity.
Shanghai gave him a taste of the big time and whetted his appetite.
"In Shanghai I saw people I'd only seen on TV and had a chance to compete with them. I learnt from them, it was pretty exciting," he said.
Koudinov knows he's making progress "but there is always room for improvement".
His is a young life dedicated to the pursuit of a sporting dream. If Beijing proves beyond him, he'll reset his gaze on London 2012. The dream won't be denied.
