Motions — Olympic Games—Congratulations to New Zealand Team

I move, That this House congratulate the members of New Zealand’s team who took part in the 28th Modern Olympic Games at Athens, particularly gold medallists Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, Sarah Ulmer, and Hamish Carter, and silver medallists Bevan Docherty and Ben Fouhy. I think it is important to place on record the congratulations of the House to these athletes and to others. It is also important to acknowledge that a lot of people have put a lot of work into getting this team to that point. It probably started, for this series, with the late Sir David Beattie and the late John Davies, former chairs of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, and continued more recently with Eion Edgar and Barry Maister. John Wills, Nick Hill, and Katie Sadleir have made sure that this team was the best supported team that New Zealand has ever sent to an Olympic Games. Dave Currie, Sir Murray Halberg, and Amster Reedy together made sure that this team was a New Zealand team. It was unmistakably a New Zealand team, and a real one.

We congratulate all participants. There were some real surprises. Teams that probably only just made selection—in women’s hockey and basketball—did very credibly, and all rowing teams made their finals. This was a very young team. We should be reminded that our gold medallist Sarah Ulmer was at her third Olympics, and that a lot of people in the team have the potential to go back to another Games. I thank the coaches, and the families and other supporters of the team. The team’s results and its demeanour made us all proud New Zealanders.

The National Party wholeheartedly supports this resolution. Our medal winners have done this country proud, and we should be delighted at their performance. It is also worth mentioning that in addition to the medals our athletes won, 21 of our athletes also won Olympic diplomas, which, I understand, reflects the fact that they were placed in the top eight in their sport. That is something we should be very much proud of, as well. But perhaps even more than their medals or diplomas, the thing that impressed me about their performance was how, without exception, they were all gracious, modest, and willing to acknowledge the help and support they had had from their supporters, in their victories. That, to my mind, is the mark of true champions. I certainly support this resolution, and the National Party votes for it.

New Zealand First joins in with the comments of other speakers, who have sought to congratulate our Kiwi athletes, who have worked so hard, first, to get to the Olympics and, second, to achieve outstanding results once they arrived. The medal-winning efforts of our gold-winning team provided New Zealanders back home with some very exciting moments we will never forget. We were very proud to see them standing under our flag as our national anthem was played. We also admire the other Kiwi athletes who competed in Athens and gave encouraging performances, including the 22 who were in the top 10 finishers. Every one of them has shown incredible determination and has made this country a very proud country.

Could I say, just as an aside, though, that although I admired the efforts in the high jump, from both the male and the female athletes, none of them surpassed the high jumping effort of my colleague Stephen Franks over the weekend.

The Greens are delighted to add their congratulations to the team and its supporters. If ever there was an indication that good news goes down at least as well as bad news, it was to see most New Zealanders glued to Television One for a couple of weeks. It provided a great deal of inspiration for the rest of us to get off our backsides and exercise. I recall that when I took up running shortly after a former Olympic Games, trying to buy running shoes in New Zealand was impossible because many people were getting into it. Other people had inspired them. It was people like John Walker in those days, and it was inspirational.

I congratulate the team’s back-up crew, as well. The fact that a number of our medals were won on New Zealand gear, such as New Zealand cycles, New Zealand kayaks, and New Zealand canoes says to us that New Zealanders make great stuff and, again, that should inspire us to look for the good New Zealand stuff.

Well done to those athletes, well done to their back-up crews, and well done to the rest of us for taking an interest, getting excited, and getting out of the doldrums for a little while on the strength of their performances.

The ACT party also offers its congratulations. I think it was the second-best gold medal tally since Los Angeles. We ranked a creditable 24th in the medal count, which was very good. It is important that this House congratulate not just those who won medals but everyone who competed, and, more particularly, those families, friends, and volunteers who laboured long and hard behind the scenes so that we could all be so proud as a nation. All I can say, given that performance, is: “Bring on Beijing in 2008!”. I understand that the Games will have the triple somersault, and I look forward to Winston Peters coming back with a gold medal.

On behalf of United Future, I join with others who have spoken to congratulate our Olympic athletes on their achievements at the 28th Olympiad, just completed in Athens. I want particularly to express congratulations to the Evers-Swindell twins, Sarah Ulmer, and Hamish Carter on their gold medal successes, and to Ben Fouhy and Bevan Docherty on their silver medals. I contrast the feeling of elation throughout the country at those successes with the gloom and despondency we felt at the Sydney Games 4 short years ago. There is no doubt that Games success does translate into popular mood, and certainly there has been a decided uplift in the public tempo over the last couple of weeks.

I want to make two other brief points. Before these Games began, it was customary in just about every quarter to bag the capacity of the Athens organisers to get the venues completed on time and also to doubt that they had any capacity at all to run a successful Olympiad. Events have proven that these Games were one of the best organised yet, and I think it is worth acknowledging the contribution of the organisers to that achievement.

The final point is that I think most New Zealanders, along with perhaps many people around the world, would have approached these Games with a sense of some trepidation that there might be some terrorist outburst during the period of the Games, and we can be thankful that that did not happen. That is a tribute, of course, to the security arrangements that were in place, but it is also a nice reminder that just occasionally in this troubled environment, things can go according to plan, things can go well, and people can get the enjoyment from them that the spirit of the modern Olympics is supposed to be all about. Congratulations to all concerned.

Motion agreed to.