Feature
Listing dangerously
by Mark Revington
The nomination of Russell Coutts as a finalist in this year’s Halberg Awards is a test of both the meaning of national sporting prizes and our maturity as a nation of sports fans.
A champion, as defined by the New Oxford Dictionary, is a person who has defeated all rivals in a competition, especially a sporting contest. A traitor is a person who betrays someone or something, such as a friend, cause or principle.
There’s little doubt that Russell Coutts is a champion. Not only did he complete a winning run of 14 races to become the most successful America’s Cup skipper in history, but he also put together a syndicate from scratch to win the trophy on the first attempt. This is huge, almost unimaginable. Ask Chris Dickson how hard it is to win the Cup, even with his talent and Larry Ellison’s billions at his disposal.
You could argue that Coutts couldn’t have done it without Brad Butterworth at his side, or the crew of Kiwis he took with him from Team New Zealand to form the core of the Alinghi campaign, but he was the man at the helm. It’s hard to underplay the magnitude of his achievement. The international yachting world recognised it by giving him the “world sailor of the year” award.
And on that score he clearly fills the definition of the Halberg Awards, which salute an outstanding sporting achievement by a New Zealander at home or overseas. No contest.
But a traitor? You could argue about it till the cows come home – and Kiwis frequently have. There was, reportedly, rather a lot of discussion among the members of the voting academy assembled by the Halberg Trust to choose the finalists for the 2003 Halberg Awards, most or all of it, one imagines, concerning the name of one R Coutts.
“There was robust debate,” confirms trust chair Dame Susan Devoy. “I think in terms of … my take on the situation is that people don’t have any problems justifying his sporting achievement. But perhaps in terms of … sportsmanship, perhaps … I think it was a difficult one, because there is no doubting his sporting achievement, but what were the repercussions for us as a nation?”
Ah, those halcyon days of 1995 and the ticker-tape parade down Queen St when Team New Zealand brought the Cup home. First, the unqualified adulation, then the depths of despair. How deep do they run? Just a minute, says Devoy, while she finds a letter that arrived the previous day.
“It says: ‘I wish to express my dismay to, say the least, when I read that Russell Coutts is a finalist in the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year Awards. I will never get my head around what he and the New Zealand members of his crew did to our country. Over the years many New Zealanders contributed to the campaign to bring back the Cup with red socks, etc. I love my country very dearly and I’m very proud of all our sports men and women, you included, but when we want to reward a so-called Kiwi for carrying the flag of another country and taking the Cup away from us, I’m really at a loss for words. The only thing that was good about it was I was painting our house during the races and I was so mad at what was going on up there in Auckland that our house got painted in half the time. Mr Coutts said Kiwis will get over it, but this Kiwi won’t forget.’”
At least the letter writer remained reasonably calm, says Devoy. “Some people are quite vitriolic.”
It's always a slap-up affair when New Zealand’s sporting elite get together for the Halberg Awards – a black-tie dinner and a certain amount of decorum. However, imagine the hush on February 19 at the awards dinner in Christchurch when the Sportsman of the Year is announced. There are four finalists – a couple of petrolheads and a couple of waterboys – which pretty much sums up a large chunk of Kiwi lifestyle.
Wade Cunningham won the world karting championship last year, in Sarno, Italy, beating a two-time champion, the defending champion, and the recently crowned European champion. How big was this win? Well, almost all the current Formula One drivers raced karts, but few even made the world championship finals. None has won the title. Cunningham, 19, has been racing for Italy’s CRG team for the past two years, but wasn’t well known before his world championship win. There were reports that most European journalists began their interviews by asking, “Who are you?” Many New Zealanders might ask the same question.
Scott Dixon doesn’t have the same problem, despite doing all his recent driving in the US, and for an American team. Dixon, 23, who won the IndyCar motor-racing title last year in his rookie year and seems destined for a Formula One career, is already a legendary driver and gets plenty of media attention back home.
The third finalist, canoeist Ben Fouhy, won the world K1 1000m title last year, a boat length clear of what was widely regarded as one of the strongest fields to have assembled over the distance. Earlier in the year, at a World Cup event in Poland, he recorded the second fastest time ever over the distance. Accordingly, the 23-year-old is seen as just the man to repeat New Zealand’s 1980s glory days in canoeing.
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