KEY POINTS:
On the Olympic stage, confidence is everything. If you're at the Games, you're a top athlete - to have a shot at the podium you need to believe in yourself.
Which is why it was unusual yesterday to hear kayaker Ben Fouhy, a 2004 world champion and Athens silver medallist, express doubt in his own abilities.
"I'm a little bit unsure and quietly hoping that I'm going to be able to come up to the level that is required when the race comes around," he said in the lead-up to his Beijing K1 1000m campaign.
"So, yeah, I'm a little bit doubtful and a little bit nervous. All I can do is hope for the best and do everything as best as I can to give myself an opportunity on Monday when the heats roll around."
Fouhy, 29, is an intense man with a singular focus and is prepared to speak his mind. It doesn't always endear him to others, but it means that you take notice when he talks; you'll get honest answers without any spin. So when he says he's not over-flowing with confidence, you can bet he's not playing any games.
The truth is, Fouhy has not had the best of years. His World Cup campaign in Europe did not produce any podium finishes - he notched up a fifth in his last race - and in fact he admits he hasn't had anything like the results he enjoyed in 2004.
"The last four years my results have been quite scattered and that's because every year I've tried to experiment with training and things and with that has brought some very, very good performances but it's also more often than not brought some below-par performances and that's a risk I took."
This year, he said he had been training hard - perhaps too hard - and that was why he left the kayak team's training camp in Rockhampton two weeks ago.
"I'd just been away from home a very long time and coming into the Olympics I felt personally for me that two weeks from the Olympics you can gain more mental energy-wise rather than physically."
He went home to Auckland to catch up with his fiancee and friends. Arriving in Beijing this week, he felt refreshed and ready to enjoy his second Olympic experience.
Asked if he liked the idea of being an underdog, he smiled. "Yeah, I love the idea of being under the radar, it's kind of nice."
