Silver medallist Nicole Shields on the podium of the women's track cycling team pursuit event, on 7 August, 2024. Kayak cross gold medallist Finn Butcher at the Champions Park at the Trocadero in Paris on 6 August, 2024. Photo: AFP / Sebastien Bozon, AFP / Pool / Thibaud Mortiz
If winning an Olympic medal is the stuff of dreams for athletes, then watching two of your former students make the podium must be the stuff of dreams for a PE teacher.
Finn Butcher, who won gold in the kayak cross, and Nicole Shields, who claimed a silver in the cycling team pursuit final, went to Dunstan High School in the Central Otago town of Alexandra.
And one person who has been staying up late to watch them is their former PE teacher Alan Hamilton.
"Oh it's been worth it - it's been fantastic ... a wee tear in the eye," he told Checkpoint's Lisa Owen.
"It's just amazing, I mean we always knew they had that potential, but to see it actually happen and to see the medals around their necks, we're just thrilled for them both - they thoroughly deserve these medals because they've worked so incredibly hard."
Hamilton has been playing the footage of the races for his classes, who have also been emotionally invested, he said.
"Today, we performed a whole school haka for [them], and it was an amazingly emotional time. We're looking forward to them coming back to the school to show them what they've achieved."
The school followed Sheilds' and Butcher's progress through the build-up to the Olympics, with updates at assemblies.
"And I noticed the local primary schools have got into it as well," Hamilton said. "They've been in the newspapers and very much in front of the students, and they've been right behind it - lots of them have been watching it through the night. That's fantastic."
Finn Butcher in the Men's Kayak Single Canoe Slalom at the Paris Olympics, on 1 August. Photo: Iain McGregor / www.photosport.nz
Both athletes had been "great all round students" in their school years, Hamilton said: "Hard-working, passionate, dedicated, intelligent.
"If they made a bit of a muck up then they treated that as a challenge not a failure - they had the right mindset for high achievement as far as I'm concerned.
"And they were surrounded by good people, great mum and dad, coaches, mentors, they couldn't help but be guided in the right direction."
New Zealand's Nicole Shields and the New Zealand women's track cycling team pursuit, in the first round at the Paris Olympics, on Wednesday. Photo: AFP/SEBASTIEN BOZON
Coming from Alexandra meant Shields and Butcher had also had to put in a lot of time travelling to events and trainings, and fundraising, which had also required a lot of commitment, he said.
"But you've got to do the hard graft, the physical stuff. They've both experienced international success and failure, but this time at the Olympics it was their turn."
Hamilton said there was currently a very promising cohort of kayakers in Alexandra, so he wouldn't be surprised to see more athletic glory for the town in the future, and he would be thrilled if people were also inspired to take up cycling after watching Shields' success.
