Speaker 1: Kielda. I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page,
Speaker 1: a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. The
Speaker 1: biggest sporting event of the year kicks off this month.
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty four Paris Olympics are only a few
Speaker 1: weeks away, and nearly two hundred Kiwi athletes will be
Speaker 1: heading to the City of Love for their shot at
Speaker 1: Olympic glory. We'll talk about those athletes later with Newstalk
Speaker 1: zedb's Jason Pine, but first on the Front Page, we're
Speaker 1: joined from Paris by New York Times International correspondent Katherine
Speaker 1: Porter to discuss how the city is preparing for the
Speaker 1: event in the midst of an election, security concerns, and
Speaker 1: a costly river cleanup. Catherine, can you tell me what
Speaker 1: the vibe is like in Paris at the moment, excited
Speaker 1: about the Olympics coming.
Speaker 2: I think there's some excitement.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: You can really see the changes that have happened in
Speaker 2: the city, particularly over the last couple months. The city
Speaker 2: is hosting Olympics right around the city and many of
Speaker 2: the main squares, like the Placis of the Concord or
Speaker 2: under the Eiffel Tower, have these temporary stands that have
Speaker 2: gone up for spectators for each venue that's being made,
Speaker 2: and so you could literally see the venues being built
Speaker 2: before our eyes. That are the temporary venues. Flags have
Speaker 2: gone up now in the last couple of weeks around
Speaker 2: the town. The rings just were affixed to the Eiffel Tower.
Speaker 2: But you know, the president is called a snap election
Speaker 2: and that has kind of distracted everyone that they're talking
Speaker 2: more about politics at this moment than they are about
Speaker 2: the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Do you think that snap election in France is likely
Speaker 1: to impact on the event itself?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think it will in terms of the
Speaker 2: actual running of the event. No, because everything has been
Speaker 2: in place for years now. They've been planning this for years.
Speaker 2: You know, all of the permanent stadiums are done of,
Speaker 2: the plan is set. So I don't think for the
Speaker 2: actual smooth running of the Olympics it will change, but
Speaker 2: it might change in terms of the atmosphere. You know,
Speaker 2: there's lots of talk about what Jordan Berdella, who's from
Speaker 2: the far right party here if he is in fact
Speaker 2: named prime minister, and he's very I mean his main
Speaker 2: platform is anti immigration. He's very suspicious and is very
Speaker 2: much anti Islam in France, and so what that will
Speaker 2: look like to host an international event that is all
Speaker 2: about peace building and bringing people together when you have
Speaker 2: a new government that is run by a far right
Speaker 2: prime minister. That that's a question that many people are asking.
Speaker 1: I know what Olympics passed, and you mentioned this before.
Speaker 1: The host cities have been just transformed by the events.
Speaker 1: But there's a strong focus now, I feel on keeping
Speaker 1: costs slow. Does a film like much as changed?
Speaker 2: No? I mean part of the winning bid for the
Speaker 2: Paris Olympics was that it would be a sober financially,
Speaker 2: a sober Olympics. They wouldn't spend a lot and that
Speaker 2: by that mostly was that they would use equipment already
Speaker 2: there and wouldn't build these giant white elephants, these huge
Speaker 2: new facilities that would lay empty a lot of the
Speaker 2: time and suck up a lot of money. And they
Speaker 2: have been successful in that they've only built two major
Speaker 2: permanent buildings. One is an aquatic center and the other
Speaker 2: is being used by the Toronto basketball team now. One
Speaker 2: is squarely in the suburbs, the northern suburbs of Paris
Speaker 2: that are known for much higher rates of poverty, high
Speaker 2: rates of immigration. You know, almost all of the riots
Speaker 2: that have started around policing of minorities have started in
Speaker 2: that area, and that's where the money's gone. Now. There
Speaker 2: was this idea that the Olympics would help bring more justice,
Speaker 2: equitable justice, and more access to swimming pools, more access
Speaker 2: to the subways even and a new subway station just
Speaker 2: opened this week. The other thing that the city and
Speaker 2: the country spent some money on was cleaning the sin
Speaker 2: and the idea was that it would be for the Olympics.
Speaker 2: There will be two events, both a long ten kilometers
Speaker 2: swim and part of the triathlon in the Sen River,
Speaker 2: which runs right through the heart of the city. But
Speaker 2: the idea was it would be clean enough that the
Speaker 2: following summer there would be swimming areas for Parisians to enjoy,
Speaker 2: and that idea of a legacy of the games. And
Speaker 2: I think people you know are still wondering whether it
Speaker 2: will happen, but generally have bought into that that these games,
Speaker 2: you know, will benefit the country. And there is not
Speaker 2: the kind of griping you here in Paris about overspending
Speaker 2: that we heard in many previous Olympics.
Speaker 1: Well, the Sin has been a point of contention in
Speaker 1: the preparations, isn't it I heard? Was it over a
Speaker 1: billion euros spent so far to clean it up?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Over a billion, A really complicated plan. Paris has
Speaker 2: an old sewage system. It's a combined sewage system, which
Speaker 2: means that the water from homes and buildings combines with
Speaker 2: rain runoff, and when there's a really big storm, there's
Speaker 2: threats that the sewage system would flood. And one of
Speaker 2: the things they've done was create storage tanks where you
Speaker 2: could hold that runoff water from storms until the storm
Speaker 2: cleared and then slowly introduced it into the sewage system
Speaker 2: so it could be treated. That's a pretty expensive and
Speaker 2: big thing to do. It's a large infrastructure project and
Speaker 2: they have so far, you know, completed it. The question
Speaker 2: people have is will the weather cooperate?
Speaker 4: The water we are said to be used for open
Speaker 4: water swimming events during the Games, but officials announced that
Speaker 4: recent testing showed levels of E. Cold and other bacteria
Speaker 4: in the Seine. Officials remain confident the river will be
Speaker 4: up to standards ahead of the Games, but that confidence
Speaker 4: may be waning just a bit. President Emmanuel McCrone in
Speaker 4: Paris mayor and Andalgo have promised to jump into the
Speaker 4: water before athletes dive in, but they have postponed those
Speaker 4: plans until mid July.
Speaker 1: Security is obviously a big concern ahead of the Games.
Speaker 1: The city's police chief has spoken of concerns about everyone
Speaker 1: from Islamic terrorism to radical environmentalists. What safety measures are
Speaker 1: being taken in Paris.
Speaker 2: Well, the big focus for now and for the last
Speaker 2: number of months is the opening ceremony. And the reason
Speaker 2: that's a focus is Paris decided to host the first
Speaker 2: opening ceremonies for Olympics that's not held within the confines
Speaker 2: of a stadium. It is going to be held in
Speaker 2: the open on the seen and will float athletes down
Speaker 2: boats and a raid of seven kilometers down the Seine
Speaker 2: through the middle literally the heart of the city, passed
Speaker 2: things like you know, the Notre Dame and the Louver
Speaker 2: and all these famous ancient buildings that people know all
Speaker 2: that around the world. And to secure seven kilometers of
Speaker 2: the scent on each side, so you're talking about securing
Speaker 2: fourteen kilometers when you're going to have hundreds of thousands
Speaker 2: of spectators. That has been the big question and the
Speaker 2: big concern for many because you know, Paris is a
Speaker 2: city that also has known terrorist attacks and big ones
Speaker 2: dating back to twenty fifteen, and much smaller ones that
Speaker 2: are more one offs and low wolves. Since I followed
Speaker 2: the plans to secure that opening ceremony and they're really,
Speaker 2: really robust. In fact, they likely would be a police
Speaker 2: officer every square meter, so more police that you'll ever
Speaker 2: see there than anywhere else in the city. They will
Speaker 2: be special ups up on the top of every building.
Speaker 2: There will be drone police. They're going to clear the
Speaker 2: river a week beforehand. Within the Olympic perimeter. I live
Speaker 2: just a few blocks from the SEIN and right across
Speaker 2: from a square that will be where athletes will come
Speaker 2: and show their metals. It's kind of like a fan zone,
Speaker 2: they're calling. And so this whole area on both sides
Speaker 2: of the SEIN will be in a red zone. And
Speaker 2: if you want to come in the day and leading
Speaker 2: up to the Olympics, you will need a QR code
Speaker 2: that shows that you have been checked, and you've had
Speaker 2: to fill out quite a number of forms, which we've
Speaker 2: just done to prove that we live here and be
Speaker 2: able to pass through. It's a huge security plan that
Speaker 2: has been talked about a lot, and I think once
Speaker 2: that's through and if it's fine and it goes well,
Speaker 2: people will heave a sigh of success. We've already seen
Speaker 2: an increase of army members on a patrol with their
Speaker 2: giant machine guns walking through the square. That's been the
Speaker 2: case for a number of months. Paris has been back
Speaker 2: and high alert of terrorism since the attacks in Russia.
Speaker 2: So I think for many Parisians too, since twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: they've grown quite used to the threat of terror and
Speaker 2: used to the site of police officers or army members
Speaker 2: with guns around them, and it will feel a bit
Speaker 2: more like a police state, I believe, in the days
Speaker 2: before the games, and we'll see what happens that day
Speaker 2: of the opening ceremony. Most analysts experts think it will
Speaker 2: be absolutely fine because of the number of officers and
Speaker 2: specialty forces that will be there and army. But then afterwards,
Speaker 2: the Olympics is set throughout the city. If you want
Speaker 2: to go and see beach volleyballs under basically in the
Speaker 2: shadow of the Eiffel Tower. If you're going to be
Speaker 2: into breakdancing, that's in the square where you know, right
Speaker 2: by the Tuiliri Gardens where Marie Antoinette and Louis the
Speaker 2: sixteenth had their head chopped off during the revolution. But
Speaker 2: right in the middle of the city. These things will
Speaker 2: be right throughout the city. We'll see, I mean. It
Speaker 2: will also be very interesting because if the government changes,
Speaker 2: we'll have a new Minister of Interior. The Minister of
Speaker 2: Interior has been the one who's been talking about the Games,
Speaker 2: talking about the security plan, the face of it. If
Speaker 2: we have a new security head of security, you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see how that changes things. But this plan has
Speaker 2: been in place for more than a year.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Catherine will A few kiw tryathletes
Speaker 1: will be at risk from a dirty river. New Zealand
Speaker 1: will be well represented across all fields, from athletics to cannoeing,
Speaker 1: artistic swimming to sport climbing. To discuss the athletes you'll
Speaker 1: need to keep an eye on, we're joined now by
Speaker 1: a news talk zedb's Jason Pine. Jason, who are the
Speaker 1: local Olympians you're keeping an eye on this year?
Speaker 5: Well, I guess you look back at the last Olympic
Speaker 5: Games and you think, okay, Well, the medalists at the
Speaker 5: last Olympics have to be in with a chance at
Speaker 5: the current Olympics. So you look at the likes of
Speaker 5: our sevens teams. For example, the women won gold in
Speaker 5: Tokyo and have been a dominant force in sevens over
Speaker 5: the last several years really, so they have to be
Speaker 5: a really good chance for gold in Paris. The men
Speaker 5: similarly won silver four years ago or three as it
Speaker 5: turned out, and will be gunning for one better in Paris.
Speaker 5: Then you look at our greatest ever Olympian in terms
Speaker 5: of medals, collector, Dame Lisa Carrington already has six, including
Speaker 5: three golds in Tokyo. She'll be there again, but up
Speaker 5: against another key who's beaten her a couple of times
Speaker 5: recently in the K one five hundred. That's Amy Fisher.
Speaker 5: So we could be looking at a gold silver Quinella
Speaker 5: here in the K one five hundred, in the canoeing.
Speaker 5: And then you look across the sports where I guess
Speaker 5: we've been dominant historically, and they tend to be ones
Speaker 5: that involve a bit of water. We are surrounded by it,
Speaker 5: of course, so the rowers I mentioned, our canoers, the
Speaker 5: sailors will obviously have something to say. Then into the
Speaker 5: pool as well, Lewis Clairbird and Erica Fairwa. They lead
Speaker 5: our charge in the swimming pool, and I really like
Speaker 5: the look of triathlete Hayden Wilde. He won a bronze
Speaker 5: in Tokyo and has been named actually to compete in Paris.
Speaker 5: He's been at the top of his triathlon game for
Speaker 5: a while now. So there's a few to look out
Speaker 5: for others as well, and we always get surprises, that's
Speaker 5: the great thing about Olympic Games.
Speaker 1: Well, this year we've got sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding all
Speaker 1: back this year, and of course breakdancing will be making
Speaker 1: its deboot.
Speaker 6: A dance floor, a DJ to provide the music, and
Speaker 6: two dancers to bassor out in front of a panel
Speaker 6: of judges. Those are the basics of breaking in Paris.
Speaker 6: There'll be a men's tournament with sixteen bee boys and
Speaker 6: a women's with sixteen b girls. After each battle, a
Speaker 6: winner has chosen and the loser eliminated. It's like boxing
Speaker 6: or any other combat sports. We're first affairs. We have
Speaker 6: to ask a question and the other person answered, what
Speaker 6: are your.
Speaker 1: Thoughts on that sport getting included.
Speaker 5: I think those who who first put the Olympic movement
Speaker 5: together would have scratched their heads at what these things
Speaker 5: even are, let alone the fact that they're going to
Speaker 5: be included in an Olympic Games. Look, I think the
Speaker 5: International Olympic Committee knows that it has to retain its
Speaker 5: currency and its contemporary nature. And you can't just rely
Speaker 5: on the same old sports Olympics after Olympics to generate
Speaker 5: new fans, new audiences, new broadcast deals, new sponsors to
Speaker 5: the Olympic movement. You have to move with the times.
Speaker 5: And while you know some of these sports might not
Speaker 5: seem like traditional Olympic sports, they're certainly not you know,
Speaker 5: breakdancing as they say in sport, climbing, a couple of
Speaker 5: new sailing classes quite foiling. You know, there are a
Speaker 5: lot of new and interesting and contemporary sports these days
Speaker 5: at the Olympics. Look, I'm all for it. I must say.
Speaker 5: If there are more eyes on the Olympics, and if
Speaker 5: there are more pathways to representation of your country at
Speaker 5: Olympic Games, then I'm absolutely all for it. I think
Speaker 5: what tends to happen during Olympic Games as we become
Speaker 5: experts on sports that ordinarily we have no idea about.
Speaker 5: It only takes a couple of three hours of watching
Speaker 5: one of these sports and already you become an expert
Speaker 5: as to what the competitors should be doing. So you're
Speaker 5: looking forward to seeing some of the newer sports as well.
Speaker 1: That's me. When I watch a dressage at the Olympics,
Speaker 1: I become suddenly an expert in the sport. We've also
Speaker 1: seen some controversy emerge this year around it, particularly the
Speaker 1: selection process for some Olympic sports. I'm thinking at windsurfing
Speaker 1: and there's accusations that it's harming our prospects. Can you
Speaker 1: tell us a bit more about that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So this specific example was kite foyler Lucas Walton Kem.
Speaker 5: Now he has been named to go to Paris, but
Speaker 5: only after he appealed his initial non selection to the
Speaker 5: Sports Tribunal. Let's take it back. Yachting New Zealand only
Speaker 5: nominate athletes they believe are capable of winning a medal. Now,
Speaker 5: the New Zealand Olympic Committee criteria has long been a
Speaker 5: top sixteen finish, but for Yachting New Zealand they say no, no,
Speaker 5: we are going to nominate athletes only who we believe
Speaker 5: are capable of winning a medal. But alongside that they
Speaker 5: have an emerging talent clause and this is for sailors
Speaker 5: who they believe are good prospects of winning medals at
Speaker 5: future Olympic Games. So they say, well, let's get them
Speaker 5: to this Olympics, give them some experience and hope that
Speaker 5: they win a medal for US at the next Olympics.
Speaker 5: And under this criteria, sailors need to show that they
Speaker 5: are a top sixteen prospect and Lucas Walton Kean was
Speaker 5: one of these. He was seeking selection under the emerging
Speaker 5: talent clause. He was twelfth in the European Championships last year.
Speaker 5: It was initially denied by Yachting New Zealand despite those results,
Speaker 5: but the tribunal upheld the appeal and they ordered yacht
Speaker 5: in New Zealand to revisit the selection process because they said,
Speaker 5: you've overlooked a couple of facts here, You've made a
Speaker 5: couple of errors in your determination and so it's been overturned.
Speaker 5: So Lucas Walton kem will now go to the Olympic Games.
Speaker 5: And that's great for him, fantastic news. But it's not
Speaker 5: the greatest build up, is it, you know, to we
Speaker 5: go to an Olympic Games. You have to really to
Speaker 5: the nth degree have your preparation all mapped out for you,
Speaker 5: and the fact that he didn't actually even know that
Speaker 5: he was absolutely going until a short time ago can't
Speaker 5: have helped him too much. So sometimes I think the
Speaker 5: criteria is a little bit inconsistent, not just across sports
Speaker 5: but also within sports, and I think that's what's happened here.
Speaker 1: Well, Hobbes not being selected for the twenty twenty Olympics.
Speaker 1: That just seems baffling in hindsight, doesn't it baffling?
Speaker 5: Indeed, Yeah, that's one word for it. The other sprinter
Speaker 5: who wasn't selected was Eddiosi n Katia, who had run
Speaker 5: a New Zealand record and had also gone under a
Speaker 5: predetermined qualifying mark, and he wasn't sent either. The difference
Speaker 5: with Eddie Oci and Katia is that he's now lost
Speaker 5: to sprinting all together. He's gone to the United States,
Speaker 5: where he's taken up a football scholarship that's American football
Speaker 5: gridiron as we often call it over here, so he's
Speaker 5: not involved in sprinting at all anymore. Thankfully, Zoey Hobbs
Speaker 5: wasn't put off by her non selection last time. She
Speaker 5: went to the Commonwealth Games of course in Birmingham and
Speaker 5: performed very very well there in reaching the final and
Speaker 5: now has made enough progress for her to earn selection
Speaker 5: for her first Olympic Games. So again it's the great
Speaker 5: balancing act. Do you send athletes because they have ticked
Speaker 5: every box and they are a genuine medal chance, or
Speaker 5: do you also just widen that criteria and say, look,
Speaker 5: on a given day, that athlete or that team or
Speaker 5: whoever it might be could do something pretty special. Because
Speaker 5: let's not forget not all of our great Olympic moments.
Speaker 5: You know, people ending up on the top of the podium,
Speaker 5: a lot of them are, but there are a lot
Speaker 5: of other great Olympic moments as well well.
Speaker 3: The top sixteen is basically shorthand for a set of criteria.
Speaker 3: That's that's behind it, because top sixteen really is a
Speaker 3: potential to make top eight. So that's what we're looking for.
Speaker 3: We're looking for people who will progress through competition to
Speaker 3: ensure that athletes are prepared and competitive and be able
Speaker 3: to represent New Zealand with pride on the world stage.
Speaker 1: Is the New Zealand Olympic Committee putting too much weight
Speaker 1: on getting gold or getting onto the podium when so
Speaker 1: many small countries around the world have never even won medals.
Speaker 5: I suppose it's a very good question. I quite like
Speaker 5: the top sixteen criteria. It means that you're not just
Speaker 5: sending somebody along because at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: a lot of this is our money. It's taxed by
Speaker 5: a money through high performance sport in New Zealand and
Speaker 5: through sport in New Zealand, so we are actually paying
Speaker 5: for this. So I don't think we want to see
Speaker 5: athletes going off and being there on a junket. I'm
Speaker 5: not saying that any of them would, but part of
Speaker 5: me thinks, if you can make someone an Olympian, a
Speaker 5: genuine Olympian, and it's not circumventing any process, and they've
Speaker 5: shown enough talent and enough commitment to the core, why
Speaker 5: wouldn't you make somebody an Olympian. It's a huge moment
Speaker 5: in anybody's life to represent their country at all, let
Speaker 5: alone at an Olympic Games. So if you can give
Speaker 5: someone that opportunity and reward them for what is often
Speaker 5: years and years and years of grind of blood, sweat
Speaker 5: and tears of commitment and sole focus on a particular discipline.
Speaker 5: Then I don't know why you wouldn't do that?
Speaker 1: And how many medals do you think New Zealand will
Speaker 1: walk away with? And what's your bed?
Speaker 5: At this stage, I knew this question was coming on.
Speaker 5: I knew it's always the one that gets asked. And
Speaker 5: then you start thinking, okay, what would a good number be?
Speaker 5: You know, Tokyo was a really really good Olympic Games,
Speaker 5: even though it was played out in COVID times. We
Speaker 5: had a really good Olympic Games. Six gold, six silver,
Speaker 5: and seven bronze medals. So what's that, you know, nineteen
Speaker 5: twenty medals. I think that would be a spectacular return
Speaker 5: in Paris, I think anywhere, and double figures would be good.
Speaker 5: I mentioned some of the possibilities before, and some of
Speaker 5: them you feel almost certain that the sevens teams, for example,
Speaker 5: will win a medal of some color. You think Dame
Speaker 5: Lisa Carrington is surely going to be there or thereabouts,
Speaker 5: and then you look across the others and you say,
Speaker 5: on any given day, a number of these athletes could
Speaker 5: find themselves on the podium. Tom Walsh in the shop,
Speaker 5: but he's already been an Olympic medallist Hamish Kerr in
Speaker 5: the high jump is one of the best going around
Speaker 5: the world at the moment. Our cyclists Elise Andrews got
Speaker 5: a silver in Tokyo. Aaron Gate got four gold medals
Speaker 5: at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, so he's got to
Speaker 5: be a chance. So yeah, if I had to make
Speaker 5: a prediction, I'd always try and be optimistic. I think
Speaker 5: twelve medals and if three or four of those could
Speaker 5: be gold, I think that'd be a really cool return.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Jason. That said, for this episode
Speaker 1: of The Front Page, you can read more about today's
Speaker 1: stories and extensive news coverage at enzat herold dot co
Speaker 1: dot z. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sells
Speaker 1: with sound engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to
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Speaker 1: and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.