The Olympics: Cheeky Aussies bare all

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

While swimming wonderwoman Susie O'Neill is covering up for the Olympics, her Aussie team-mates have stripped naked in a new Games tradition.

Among them is Grant Hackett, who braved the cold and cramp to pose in his birthday suit in a giant fishbowl for Australian magazine Black + White.

Twenty-nine Olympic athletes have appeared starkers for the special edition, which hit the streets yesterday - pole vaulter Tatiana Grigorieva creating a stir with a full-frontal nude pose.

Some of Australia's best-known stars were absent from the photo call - runner Cathy Freeman turning down the invitation, while teenage swimmer Ian Thorpe was too young to bare any more than his big feet.

In the meantime, O'Neill is trying to cover all in a controversial full-length swimsuit for September. After breaking the 19-year-old 200m butterfly world record last week without one, O'Neill will now try to go faster in the neck-to-toe outfit.

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New Zealand boxing coach John McKay has found himself in another fracas outside the Olympic ring.

McKay - punched by a Samoan boxer at the Oceania champs last weekend - has hit out at sports funders, blaming a lack of money for New Zealand's failure to get more than one boxer to the Olympics.

But Sports Foundation executive director Chris Ineson retaliated yesterday, saying boxing needed a wake-up call to realise "they are not on the pace."

In one corner, McKay said he was bitter that funding for his squad of 14 Olympic hopefuls had been "stark" - and the reason just one, Angus Shelford, won an Olympic place.

Ineson said boxing had been given more than $400,000 in the past four years for personal and coaching grants, and international competition.

"They went to the Commonwealth Games and won one bronze," he said. "How long does it take for them to realise they are not on the pace?"

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Boardsailing champion Barbara Kendall is blasting through the fleet at the European championships in Spain as she kicks off her countdown to the Olympics.

After six races, world No 1 Kendall was first overall, amazing herself in light winds. Although she has been putting in extra training for slight breezes, she had not expected to be so fast so soon.

Her male counterpart, world silver medallist Aaron McIntosh, was sitting ninth after a series of top-four places and one disqualification.

Other Olympic yachties had their first day at the Spa regatta in Holland yesterday, and were shaken up by the shifty winds.

Skiff pair Dan Slater and Nathan Handley had a first and second, mixed with a 13th. Rod Davis' Soling crew scored a win and an 18th.

Young Finn sailor Clifton Webb was fourth in his opening race before suffering gear damage, while Europe yachtie Sarah Macky is carrying a disqualification for a premature start.

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Kiwi beach volleyball contenders Craig Seuseu and Tom Eade have taken the first jump towards Bondi Beach and the Olympics.

Seuseu and Eade yesterday played their way into the main draw of the opening world series event in Macau, topping the qualifying rounds to make the top 24.

The pair must be ranked 24th or better in August, after 10 world events, to earn an Olympic spot. They were ranked 25th going into the Macau competition.

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New Zealand's frontline rowers will be handed their tickets to Sydney just after dawn on picturesque Lake Karapiro tomorrow.

The team for Sydney will be named as the national squad meet for a training camp.

Husband-and-wife scullers Rob and Sonia Waddell and the men's coxless four are certainties.

It is now up to the women's eight, the women's doubles and men's coxless pair to qualify through a European regatta in Lucerne in July.

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The Olympics – a Herald series

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