The New Zealand Women’s Canoe Sprint Team for the 2024 Paris Olympic games Aimee Fisher, Lucy Matehaere, Alicia Hoskin, Dame Lisa Carrington, Tara Vaughan and Olivia Brett. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
New Zealand has more than 190 athletes competing at the Olympic Games in Paris and behind every athlete is a support crew of coaches, administrators, family and friends who have helped make sporting dreams come true.
For two-time Olympian kayaker Aimee Fisher, Paris is an opportunity to show those who have been in her corner what their support has meant to her.
"It's been an epic journey and there's been a lot of love and I've been surrounded by people who have supported me and got me through that time and now I get to go and race for them," Fisher said.
"I think that's the biggest thing I get to go race for my people."
Fisher's sentiment is shared by many athletes, but it is particularly relevant for the 29-year-old who missed the last Olympics.
Her brother Rob has been one of Fisher's biggest supporters and will be cheering from the sidelines of the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
Aimee Fisher. Photo: Photosport
"These Olympic athletes often are training in a far far away land in behind the watchful eye of the public and their ability to be self-driven and determined is a big part of it so it has certainly been interesting to watch that unfold for her."
Rob has witnessed the highs of World Championship wins and the lows when Aimee stepped away from Canoe Racing New Zealand prior to the Tokyo Games.
He said he wanted to mihi to CRNZ who had welcomed his sister back into the fold and found a pathway for her to get to Paris.
"You just want to be on the start line, the result will be the result, the performance will be the performance but really the focus has been on what do we need to do to get there and that has required a lot of hard work on her side and mending some old relationships and doing a whole bunch of things which has been awesome and so I think it has been a real growth for her as well so I've been proud of her the way she stepped into that."
New Zealand's Nina Brown and Eva Morris compete in the preliminary round of the women's duet free artistic swimming event during the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha. Photo: AFP
Shirley Hooper knew better than some mums just what it has taken for her daughter Eva Morris to get to Paris.
It has been 16 years since New Zealand last had artistic swimmers at an Olympics - this year Morris will compete with Nina Brown in the duet.
"She's had this dream for a really really long time and it's easy to think it is a faze it's easy to think 'oh yeah we'll support that', but she just had so much determination to just keep going through a lot of moments when it would have been easy to give up," Hooper said.
Hooper is the chair of Artistic Swimming New Zealand and was acutely aware that the selection criteria changed each Olympic cycle.
She never thought New Zealand would have a duo in Paris - she initially believed the only chance would be to qualify a team.
"We've been trying to craft teams and that is still our dream that would be the ultimate to send a team to represent New Zealand at the Olympics but this year because of the fact that there were only 18 duets we had to demonstrate we could finish top 16 and we didn't even really realise that was an opportunity until well down the track talking to the selectors and they went 'we could do this' and we went wow we could do this."
Dylan Schmidt training in Auckland Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Jen Schmidt couldn't be in Tokyo when son Dylan won a bronze medal on the trampoline at the last Games due to Covid restrictions.
This year she would be in the gym in Paris when Dylan competes at his third Games - but his siblings won't be.
Jen said it had been harder to watch her youngest compete live overseas in recent years.
"When he was younger one of us would go over the international competitions but sadly now it's just not within our budget as much as we'd like to.
"We went to Portugal last year and saw him in a couple of World Cups and that was great to actually watch him again and it was a real reminder of how hard it is for these athletes just the pressure and tension of a competition and how easy it is for things to go wrong."
While Jen said it was gutting to miss Dylan's medal-winning performance in 2021 the family is used to him succeeding.
"I guess we kind of take it for granted which is really not a good thing, we're just so used to him just being Dylan and he's done pretty well right from the beginning when he was young but just to see him carry it through is amazing."
There will not be a shortage of proud parents and satisfied coaches in Paris and over the coming weeks thousands of athletes from around the world will publicly thank those who helped them get to the pinnacle event.
