Why is Australia a nation of kayakers that did not even qualify for canoeing at the Sydney Olympics?
We didn’t have enough time – we needed four to six years. Two years ago we reestablished a program in Melbourne and we took the canoeists overseas. The program is aimed at Athens (2004) and they didn’t qualify for the Olympics but we did take them and they did make semifinals at the World Championships – which is a quantum leap. But more importantly we did plant a seed of enthusiasm among them. It is a very difficult discipline in sprint. In slalom I think we have a canoe culture. But in the sprint, which is one knee or one foot up, I think you’ll find that there isn’t a culture here yet, mainly because of surfing. Surfing is surf skis and that’s where most of the kayakers have come from. Every male kayaker in the Olympics has done surf at some time.
