By JAN CORBETT
The bad news is that we know quite well that you were drawn to this story because of the photograph of the most gorgeous woman to compete in an Olympic sport since, well, ever.
The good news is that none of us has to feel superficial, exploitative or prurient about that.
Hers is a face and a body that helped to pull television audiences to watch women's hockey at the Sydney Olympics - and it most certainly helps to sell newspapers and magazines.
In a country with only a fledgling celebrity culture but a crowded and increasingly aggressive media one, she cannot help but be hot property. And popular property, too. In a Herald-DigiPoll survey the hockey pin-up star easily topped the list of high-profile New Zealanders that people would most like to have as a friend.
There's a symbiosis between sport and celebrity: if no one knows about you your games may not be televised. No television means no sponsors and fewer younger players getting interested in the game. No sponsors means no hope of competing internationally, so no hope of an Olympic medal.
Hockey chiefs, knowing that securing sponsorship and recruiting young players depends on the sport having a profile - even among readers of the women's tabloids - could not be happier about the Mandy Smith factor. Although they have not put a dollar value on it, Hockey Federation chief executive Ramesh Patel calls her "a great ambassador for the sport" who never says no to unpaid promotional activities.
Nor does the stardom appear to cause any problems within the team. Goalie Helen Clarke, whose physique and visage is hidden on field behind her armour, says the team is largely grateful that Smith assumes the role of media darling.
"We're not blind," she says. "We do realise she's relatively attractive. Up till now women's hockey hasn't had a huge profile.
"At times I think Mandy took it upon herself. The only times we could get publicity was around a tournament and you need somebody to identify the team with. For us, Mandy is ideal. She's gorgeous, she's a good player, she's intelligent, she speaks well.
"So for us it's worked out well. There are a lot of media-shy people within the team, so if we can find a couple who are happy to talk to the media and have a higher profile it takes the pressure off the others."
But how far should women's sport go in bankrolling itself by way of a beautiful woman? And who really pays in the end?
Three months after returning from the Sydney games surprised at the degree of public interest in her and the team, Smith was giving all the indications that the price of celebrity had shot too high.
Arriving back at Auckland Airport after a two-week speaking trip in Britain, she was snapped by a Sunday Star-Times photographer when being greeted by boyfriend Dean Barker. The picture dominated the newspaper's front page.
For better or worse, the pin-up girl hockey star dating New Zealand's America's Cup skipper is news as much as it would be if they were Hollywood stars - perhaps more so in a country with no Hollywood.
But although her previous long-term relationship with rugby league star Marc Ellis was openly discussed, right now - in the delicate stages of a new relationship - she is, understandably, unwilling to talk about Barker. So unwilling that she declined to speak to the Herald at all after we refused her agent's demand that there be no mention of Dean Barker and no photograph of them together.
No way, said agent Sara Tetro, did she want Smith in an article with Barker's name in it. "She got completely nailed on Mary Lambie this morning. We had an absolute assurance it wouldn't be brought up and it was brought up and she just won't be speaking to anyone now."
Two days later she appeared with Susan Wood on the Today Show.
There is apparently a difference between an agent and a media strategist, Tetro having only recently metamorphosed from a modelling agent to an athlete's minder.
But somehow the modelling pedigree is fitting. Seated in the agency's trendy uptown offices, Smith looks more the cover girl than the woman who has just been named runner-up in the international women's hockey player of the year award.
She wears high heels, makeup and flashes her unnaturally white teeth. Her frame appears a good deal more fragile in reality, compared to the muscular body we are accustomed to seeing on television.
Her manner is unfailingly pleasant. Happily, she can leave the tough talk to Tetro. Having an aggressive agent like Tetro might be one way to hold the line between the type of publicity that gets sponsors on board and the type that finishes up with a double fatality in a Paris tunnel. Or it might have the opposite effect.
It might also be a way to ensure that there really is life and income after sport, for at 28 Smith is in the twilight of her hockey career. She is talking of playing for maybe another year, but is unlikely to be at the next Olympics. Will her legacy be lasting proof that women athletes have no hope of maintaining a lucrative profile unless they look like Mandy Smith? And does it matter?
Margaret Henley, a netball player turned academic who teaches media studies at the University of Auckland and is making a special study of women's team sports on television, says that voyeurism based around sport is nothing new: "Why should it be a guilty pleasure?"
Athletes have attractive bodies and women athletes who realise they have more to sell than their sports skills are increasingly taking the attitude that if you've got it ... Hence the fashion for the naked sports calendar, especially across the Tasman.
As long as it is the women themselves who are controlling that type of marketing, Henley cannot see how it can be considered sexual exploitation. "Men are selling their sex appeal, too," Henley says. "Australian gold medal swimmer Ian Thorpe is in a soap opera."
In New Zealand the growth in the television audience for rugby has been strongest among women.
"There is a new breed of young women athletes coming through who are well supported by good management and who can manage this situation. Mandy Smith is doing this very well. I think she's playing it savvy. She's mature and intelligent. She gives just enough to the women's magazines but they don't know her."
There is an inequality for women in that men's teams don't have to push forward a good-looking front-man to get a profile.
Clarke says that with men's sport all you have to be is good at your sport. "With women's sport that's not always enough."
She cites the situation of Steffi Graf - whose profile was never as high as that of Pete Sampras, even though she was a world No 1 - compared with the attention paid to Anna Kournikova, "who can't play tennis to save herself."
"I don't think it's a problem unless that person is getting undue attention," Clarke says. "If they can play the sport and be good-looking at the same time, I don't have a problem. But if they start getting promoted because of their looks but they can't play, then we have got a problem."
No one who watched Smith dribbling the hockey ball towards goal, dodging and weaving, firing for goal, could doubt her ability. Coach Jan Boran cites Smith's skill at reclaiming the ball after a tackle, her speed, agility and ability to surprise. He says she is easy to coach because she understands what he is trying to achieve.
Fears that women's hockey will shrink into oblivion once Smith hangs up her stick appear to be unfounded given the huge change in the relationship between women's sport and television.
Because Television New Zealand lost the rights to rugby, league and the cricket, it is on the lookout for another sport that gives women's teams, which traditionally have not been seen as big ratings winners, an opportunity
TVNZ head of sport Denis Harvey agrees that the loss of the big three blokes' sports has opened up the field, but points out that this will benefit all previously under-televised sport "irrespective of whether they're men or women."
TVNZ does not go looking for women's sport, but for good sport with a profile, Harvey says, and New Zealanders support New Zealand teams that win. Although the women's hockey team did not win at the Olympics, its battle up to medal contention, mixed with a couple of unjust umpiring decisions, captured our emotions.
Henley says that's the reason women's hockey is taking the place of the All Blacks, who are accused of corporatising the national spirit.
Women's hockey rekindles the values which go with amateur sport and the romantic idea of conquering the world on a financial shoestring.
Now, thanks to their performance in Sydney, Telecom 2GO has kicked in with a three-year sponsorship deal - a deal in no way dependent on Smith remaining with the team.
Andre May, who manages Telecom 2GO marketing and has played a lot of hockey, was conscious that Telecom had sponsorship deals with rugby but no equivalent deals with any women's team. "It is well overdue," he says.
Wanting to associate his brand with some grassroots Kiwi battlers, he made the approach to the Hockey Federation knowing that women are an important target market for mobile phones.
Therein lies another reason why women's sport is getting a higher television profile - because marketers have realised that women shop more than men and are a lucrative market, especially, Henley says, for sports-chic clothing. The audience for women's hockey is evenly balanced between men and women.
Changed rules and modern playing surfaces have sped up the game and, combined with those sexy lycra dresses, have made hockey a good deal more television-friendly than in the days players ran about on muddy fields in ill-fitting split skirts.
Sport: The price of celebrity
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