Olympics: What it takes to be champions

By EUGENE BINGHAM

In New Zealand's Olympic history, there is one truly golden hour - the 60 minutes when first Murray Halberg then Peter Snell became Olympic champions in Rome in 1960.

Imagine how it would have been to be a Kiwi in the crowd at the Olympic Stadium that sweltering day.

It is a moment that is almost impossible to eclipse.

But to have witnessed Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell's gold medal rowing victory in the morning then been gob-smacked by Sarah Ulmer's incredible world record ride in the hot, thick air of the Olympic velodrome in the afternoon is a day I will never forget.

The rowing venue at Schinias has a very egalitarian feel. Everyone mixes and mingles together as at no other Olympic competition.

We lined up for the security check with towering, square-shouldered Bulgarian and Pole competitors; bought a drink in the caff alongside the local women dressed in traditional Greek uniforms who would later present the medals; then chatted about the races with English chaps steeped in the Oxbridge tradition of rowing.

New Zealanders there were riding high with expectation, not only for the twins' race, but for the other four finals featuring New Zealand crews.

Dave Currie, the super-enthusiastic team chef de mission, broke into at least three haka during the morning - one in the carpark to greet other New Zealanders and two in the stands.

When the twins rowed into sight during their race, it was amazing to think that right here before us was unfolding another moment in New Zealand sport that will be replayed for generations.

The medal presentation triggered a flashback of the footage played over and over again of the 1972 men's eight rowing crew clutching their gold medals.

On the podium 32 years later, those seventies black-rimmed spectacles were replaced with the twins' funky coloured sunglasses.

Here were two of New Zealand's finest sportswomen, feeling slightly awkward about the attention, and looking even more uncomfortable with olive laurels upon their blond heads.

Under the baking Greek sun, listening to the New Zealand anthem and watching the flag hoisted, I wondered if this is what it would have felt like to have been at those other golden moments in our Olympic history. And wondered would this be the only time I would hear the anthem at these Games.

Hours later, Ulmer crushed those doubts with two blazing rides which set her on track for gold.

Could there ever have been a more dominating performance by a New Zealand sportswoman? In the space of an hour, she raced the two fastest times ever for the 3000m individual pursuit.

For all those times when the All Blacks have let us down, the test matches lost that should have been won, here was someone in a silver fern performing emphatically when she had to and on her toughest stage. During the first week of the Games we have seen so many times how Olympians suffer stage-fright, their confidence eluding them at the critical moment.

But not Ulmer and not the Evers-Swindells.

They showed what it takes to be champions, and wrote a sporting legacy to file alongside New Zealand's other golden moments.

I no longer have to imagine what it was like to have been there.