The last may be first and the first last

By JULIET ROWAN and DIANA MCCURDY

Kiwi kayaker Steven Ferguson divided the country with his deliberate "go slow" performance in the K1 500m at Athens on Tuesday night.

Ferguson had a back injury and wanted to save himself for the possibility of winning a medal at the K2 1000m final with Ben Fouhy last night. However, he needed to do the 500m to be eligible for the final.

After paddling in slow motion he finished a distant last, achieving his goal of avoiding the semifinals. Owen Hughes, a member of the K4 crew who failed to qualify for the Games, won support in talkback, bars and living rooms when he described the performance as a disgrace.

"It's an embarrassment to us, to New Zealand sport in general and to kayaking," Hughes said.

But the reaction paled compared with uproar across the Tasman when rower Sally Robbins gave up in the women's eight.

And in China, tolerance for losers is so low the Government has felt compelled to step in. The People's Daily newspaper - mouthpiece of the Communist Party - says people must stop referring to failed Olympic athletes as "traitors".

Contrast the British media's treatment of their favourite, Paula Radcliffe, who pulled out of the women's marathon in searing heat. But then, didn't they also make a hero out of Eddie the Eagle?

After Ferguson's go-slow, Hughes told reporters that the whole time the New Zealand team were in Europe this year Ferguson had injuries to his shoulder, back and neck which caused him to pull out of races. "We had a third spot there. Why didn't we send somebody? Five other guys would have given their left arm to be in the race. He has a history of doing this in races.

"All the guys share my point of view. They can't believe they gave a spot back."

Ferguson's father and coach, kayaking legend Ian Ferguson, jumped to his son's defence, saying that Steven hated the idea of throwing a race, but had no alternative.

Canoe Racing New Zealand president Tim Jago told One News that Hughes' words were "sour grapes". But whether Jago felt comfortable watching Ferguson loll across the line, looking like he was on holiday rather than taking part in the world's greatest sporting event, remains to be seen.

Cynics may say Ferguson was let off lightly because of his potential to redeem himself in the K2 1000m final.

By comparison, Sally Robbins had no second chances after her team came last in the women's eight.

Her explanation - "I just rowed my guts out in the first 1500 and didn't have anything left and that's all I could have done ... this experience only makes me stronger" - didn't cut it with the Aussies.

Angry crew members and other athletes lambasted the 23-year-old. Former Olympic runner Cathy Freeman, a heroine at Sydney when she won the 400m for Australia, called Robbins' performance "un-Australian".

The media weren't giving Robbins any breaks, either. "Lay-down Sally", "Just oarful", newspaper headlines blared. Sydney's Daily Telegraph declared: "It appears as though Robbins has committed the greatest crime there is in honest sport - she quit."

The kindest headline for Robbins in the wake of failure was: "It's eight, mate. Pull your weight".

An about-face of sorts came on Wednesday, when the crew called a press conference in Athens to say they regretted criticising Robbins. Harsh words flowed in the heat of the moment, they said.

Never mind that the Australian Olympic Committee had reprimanded them for the remarks, and talkback callers at home were expressing disgust at the way Robbins was being vilified.

In Britain, Paula Radcliffe received a comparatively glowing reception when she dropped out of the marathon. The British media made little mention of whether Radcliffe, the world record-holder and race favourite, could hack the pace. Instead she was treated to headlines like, "Paula Radcliffe: Someone to be proud of".

The Daily Telegraph said Britain's sympathy for Radcliffe gave the country a moral edge over Australia.

"Perhaps it is just a question of practice, but yesterday Britain found a branch of sporting excellence at which it could trounce Australia: compassion for the loser," the paper trumpeted.

The British, of course, have a proud tradition of supporting losers. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the comically inept British "ski jumper" Eddie Edwards became something of a national hero after finishing dead last in both the 70m and 90m jumps.

Facetiously nicknamed The Eagle, Edwards' complete lack of skill and goofy appearance won him both fame and fortune. He won a $65,000 deal to tell his life story to a tabloid and had a No 2 song, Mun Niemi En Eetu (My Name is Eddie) in Finland in 1991.

But then, Edwards had it easy. No one ever expected him to win.

Radcliffe, on the other hand, was a golden girl. More than nine million Britons tuned in to the marathon this week expecting to see her win.

Despite the fawning headlines after Radcliffe's defeat, not everyone felt comfortable with the attention showered on a loser at the expense of the Japanese winner.

Remember her? You could be forgiven if you don't. For the record, it was 26-year old Mizuki Noguchi.

Daily Telegraph columnist Robert Philip was moved to distance himself from his paper's parochialism. Call him a cynic, Philip said, but unless the medics in Athens could come up with a physical reason for Radcliffe's loss, he couldn't understand why she should be dubbed a hero. "Radcliffe stopped running and started bubbling for the simple reason that she had just seen gold, silver and bronze medals disappear into the distance."

At a media conference following the marathon, Radcliffe admitted that there were no excuses. She broke down in tears as she told said that one of the hardest things was not knowing the reason why she had run so badly.

"Everyone had to compete in those conditions," the Independent reported her as saying. "I trained hard and I should have been able to cope."

Perhaps the only thing Radcliffe has to be thankful for right now is that she doesn't live in China. With major upsets in events in which China has historically dominated - such as gymnastics - officials have criticised the media for putting too much pressure on the athletes by building up expectations. China is perhaps feeling the pressure in the lead-up to Beijing hosting the Olympics in 2008.

The China Daily commented that the respect shown to losers reflected the cultural level of a nation and its people: "Exaggerations have been made in the media before and during the Games, surely adding to the athletes' complacency and subsequent stress when things started to go wrong."

And the Beijing Morning Post quoted Li Furong, deputy director of China's Athens delegation as saying: "We must keep a clear head ... it's imperative that we don't become overly optimistic."

In Canada, one man has respect for the losers. Jonathan Crowe has started a web log, or blog, dedicated to those coming last in Athens.

"I never mention the gold medallists' names here - they get enough press," the 32-year-old writes at http://www.mcwetboy.net/dfl

Each day, Crowe posts a scoreboard of countries with last-place finishes. The purpose, he says, is not to mock but to honour athletes "who are out there putting themselves on the line".

He has a point. There are some losers whose dedication almost outshines the glory of the winners. Robert Philip - the columnist who was so scathing about Radcliffe's loss - points to a tale in Games' historian Bud Greenspan's 100 Greatest Moments In Olympic History. Tanzanian John Stephen Akhwari was the last man home in the Mexico City marathon of 1968, an hour behind gold medallist Mamo Wolde, of Ethiopia. Akhwari entered the stadium with his left leg bloodied and bandaged, wincing with every step.

When asked why he did not give up when he had no chance of winning, Akhwari replied: "I don't think you understand. My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish the race."

History shows we shouldn't be too hard on losers. Some of them make glorious comebacks. Kiwi Hamish Carter's decisive gold in the men's triathlon this week followed a bomb-out four years ago in Sydney.

Ironically, it was second-placegetter Kiwi Bevan Docherty who had carried the weight of the country's expectations at this year's Olympics. "That allowed me to come into this race with a little bit more relaxation and it really helped," Carter said.

Perhaps losing occasionally isn't such a bad thing after all.