The Olympics Blog» New Zealand, The Olympics Blog,

New Zealand Football Players Do the "Haka"

bill — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:28:00 +0000

Embarrassed that female Olympians [Britta Heideman, Natalie Coughlin, Amanda Beard, etc] are outscoring the males in the very important Olympic art of posing naked, this group of New Zealand football players led by Sam Messam decided to equalize things by removing their shirts and performing the traditional Maori “haka” before a crowd of cheering thousands.

Now everything is all right with the world since the nakedness score between male and female Olympians is now even.

Photo source: Chinadaily

Olympics Fashion: New Zealand Unveils Uniform

bill — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:26:00 +0000

If you think we will never blog about fashion here at The Olympics Blog, you should think again. Actually, we never intended to blog about fashion but the Kiwis down under forced us to blog about it when they unveiled their Olympic uniform.

How can we not upload the above picture right? We’re sure the legions of you who’ve got a foot fetish will go crazy with New Zealand’s crocs.

What about the second picture? Are we the only ones who think that New Zealand swimmer Dean Kent looks kinda sorrowful in this pic? With the all-black uniform and his not too happy face it is as if he just attended a wake. What’s up, mate?

Now we’re talking. To use a cliche, swimmer Helen Norfolk strikes a pose. She’s also the model for the crocs above which foot fetishists are going crazy about.

PHOTO SOURCE: stuff.co.nz.
Outside Reading: NZ Olympic uniform unveiled (+pics)

Selection Controversy: Liza Hunter-Galvan to Sue Athletics NZ

bill — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:08:00 +0000

This is interesting. Some countries are finding it hard to find someone to represent them in the Olympics but New Zealand must have an abundance of talents as it has rejected two marathoners despite these two clocking “A-standard times”.

But what exactly is “A-standard time”? Well, we don’t know but we might do a future post on it if we find out what it means. Hehe.

Anyways, the Sunday Star Times reports that one of those rejected by Athletics NZ, Liza Hunter-Galvan, has “engaged an American lawyer to fight her case to be in the New Zealand team for Beijing”.

Is this the first time, someone had to file a case to be included in an Olympic team?

Hunter-Galvan isn’t the only one frustrated with Athletics NZ. According to the Star-Times, marathoner Michael Aish, who’s also not picked has “had enough after a decade of frustration with Athletics NZ”.

From the Star-Times: Aish claims that Athletics NZ had been damaging his career by making him “jump through hoops” on the eve of big events. He claimed it had:

* Selected him for the 5000m at the 2003 world championships, then told him to switch to the 10,000m the day before the event on fitness grounds “but I hadn’t run a 10,000m all season”.

* Was told four days before the Athens Olympics 10,000m to do a flat-out workout to prove his fitness: “I never recovered for the race.” (He had asked to stay at altitude before the event but was sent to a sea-level training camp tailored for field athletes when other distance athletes were allowed to remain at altitude.)

* Was asked to run another near- qualifying 10,000m before the 2007 world championships despite clocking just short of the New Zealand record; Aish claimed there were no races available but Athletics NZ were “so bent on getting their race in they hadn’t thought of it”.

Whoo. If these allegations are true, then some thing’s not right at Athletics NZ. Making someone compete in an event he’s not prepared for? That’s not cool. Wasting an athlete’s energy four days before a race? That’s not cool too.

Anyways, we will keep you posted on whether Hunter-Galvan can manage to overturn the decision against her. Because this blog is all about Olympians, we hope she will.

Outside reading:
Runner takes legal aim at NZ selectors

Quote of the Day: New Zealand’s Tash Hind

bill — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:24:00 +0000

We like it when athletes continue to have a life outside of their sport so we’re picking our quote of the day from someone who does that. Tash Hind of New Zealand was just named to her country’s swimming relay team. She also continues to attend university. Asked how her training affect her studies, she goes:

“It can affect your marks – you might go from an A+ to a B+ – you’ve just got to make sure you can get through both study and swimming”.

Here’s hoping that you’ll get A pluses, Tash. But then a B+ isn’t bad either. In fact, President Bush made mostly Cs and still got to be elected President. Twice. [But maybe that says something about those who voted for him, eh?]