Waddell's Olympian Comeback Bid
Rowing in Spotlight for Beijing Olympics with Battle of Champions
Selecting between Olympic victor Rob Waddell and multiple world champion Mahe Drysdale for New Zealand's single sculls berth at Beijing has been a dramatic process.
The brave attempt of Rob Waddell to come back from retirement and secure the country’s only position in the prestigious singles rowing event at the 2008 Olympics has reawakened national interest in the sport and is likely to go down in the country’s sporting history.
The media coverage of the attempt—which ended in huge disappointment for Waddell as a previously well-controlled heart condition sabotaged a crucial Olympic qualifying race—has attracted interest in New Zealand and overseas, and not only from people normally interested in the sport of rowing.
Waddell, who won New Zealand’s only gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, came seemingly from nowhere to challenge three-time world champion Mahe Drysdale for the specialist position at the Beijing Olympics. Over the New Zealand summer, Waddell and Drysdale traded victories at Lake Karapiro, strength and experience pitted against current race fitness. The rivalry attracted much public debate: was it fair for selectors to consider Waddell when Drysdale seemingly had the Olympic berth sown up? Would both rowers, having to peak once for trials and again for the Olympics, simply burn themselves out?
Waddell had been back at rowing training for little more than a half year. After the Sydney Olympics, he had played some rugby and transformed his body to fill a grinder role on the New Zealand boat for the America’s cup, metamorphoses that were taken by the public as signs of his versatility.
But suddenly, on a Wednesday morning in the space of a few minutes, Waddell’s Olympic comeback dream was over. In the deciding race of a tied best-of-three series, Drysdale surged ahead to win by five boat lengths.
Waddell, 28, was raised on a Waikato dairy farm, is married with three children to Sonia, herself an Olympian, holds a black belt in karate and among many other roles has been active in representing the rights of Commonweath and Olympic athletes. He was diagnosed prior to the Sydney Olympics with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and chose not to compete in 2004, but is said to have been symptom-free in recent years. He now faces big decisions about his future in sport and about treatment options for his heart condition, which may include an operation or medication.
World and Olympic Champions in Rowing
New Zealand has a proud history in rowing, beginning at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics with the pair-oared rowing team of Fred Thompson and Bob Stiles and continuing with frequent success since the 1968 Olympic Games, especially in coxed and coxless fours. Pairs titles have been won by Philippa Baker and Brenda Lawson and at the 2004 Olympics by the “golden girls”, double-scullers Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell. The prospect of two single male scullers who could potentially win gold medals, and one single scull spot, was a dilemma for rowing selectors.
At present, selectors and the public appear to be giving Rob Waddell space to decide whether he will aim to go to Beijing as part of a team, or focus on what comes next in terms of his treatment and career. It will be interesting to observe whether the public fascination with rowing reawakened by the Drysdale/Waddell rivalry will last the distance to the Beijing Olympics.
Sources: New Zealand media, in particular Television New Zealand, and the Dominion Post, March 2008.
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