KEY POINTS:
If Erin Taylor shines at the Beijing Olympics she will pay tribute to seaweed lurking at the bottom of a Sydney lake.
The 20-year-old from Red Beach north of Auckland made history today when she was the first female New Zealand flatwater kayaker named to compete at an Olympics.
Coached by canoeing greats Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, she will contest the K1 500m sprint at Beijing in August.
Her teammates are Athens Games silver medallist Ben Fouhy, who will seek to go one better in the K1 1000m, and K2 1000m pair Steven Ferguson and Mike Walker.
It is third Olympics for Ferguson, who will also race the K1 500m, having competed at the 2000 Games in Sydney as a swimmer.
But it was the vibrant Taylor who a posse of media organisations wanted to know about at the team's Lake Pupuke training base today, a week before they leave for more mileage and World Cup competition in Europe throughout June.
Her rise is a remarkable one, having taken up the sport less than four years ago.
Before that, swimming and surf life saving ruled her school years.
"Then I was watching the (2004) Athens Olympics, and I decided I wanted to do a sport that I could go to the Olympics in," she said.
Within two years she was representing New Zealand and earned a sudden death Oceania trial for one Olympic spot against Australian Alana Nicholls two months ago.
Nicholls won the race but New Zealand management protested conditions at Penrith's Sydney Olympic Regatta Centre course, which was plagued by weeds.
International officials agreed and Taylor, given a second shot after an interminable two-week wait, made no mistake with one of the fastest races of her life.
Taylor well remembers the flatness of missing out in the first race, a frustrating experience as she collected a forest of weeds.
Relief and nerves intertwined following the announcement of the rerun and it took some quiet words from MacDonald to focus her mind.
"He said whoever had the race of their life on the day was going to win. And it just happened to be me," she said.
"It hurt a lot but all that hurt went straight away."
It is an experience that she reckons will swat aside any butterflies that appear in Beijing.
" I'd never had to deal with pressure like that before in my life so I guess it's set me up well for China.
"Now I can tell myself I've dealt with it before and come through it.
"I'm definitely going there as the underdog but I know what times the top girls are doing and I've worked out what percentage of improvement I need to make the A final."
Reaching the final is the goal currently but that may change, depending on what form the current world No 16 can generate through three World Cup regattas next month.
She will continue training in Australia through July before heading to Beijing, where father Mike, mother Wendy and brother Matt have already booked their tickets.
Three-time Olympic champion MacDonald had no doubt Taylor's selection would be justified.
"She's definitely ready for the big time. If she continues on this improvement curve, we're going to see something quite special," he said.
"She loves what she's doing. When athletes have a passion and love what they're doing, sometimes that can make the difference.
"And she's developed her own confidence. When we got fair conditions in Sydney she pulled something special out of the bag and I think it was then she realised she had an amazing talent."
Taylor has been named in a New Zealand training squad for the 2010 world surf life saving championships but said her sole focus for now was the flat water.
"They (surf life saving) always knew I'd have this whole year concentrating on kayaking," she said.
"I have a lot of technical work to do so the more time I spend in my kayak, the better."
- NZPA
