From John Goodbody in Sydney
Beneath the intensity and commercialism of Olympic endeavour, there still flourishes the notion that coming to the world’s greatest sports event can be fun. Thankfully, there are competitors in Sydney who know how to enjoy themselves, particularly when they are away from the track and the pool, the ring or the rowing lake.
Some boisterous joie de vivre can develop a corporate spirit, enhance the quality of the performances, act as a relaxation from the stress of training and competition and yet, at the same time, bind a group into an even more cohesive unit.
Wimbledon football club developed their extraordinary solidity of purpose in matches partly through their off-the-field antics, which earned them the nickname of "The Crazy Gang". Similarly, Tim Foster spoke 48 hours before Britain’s renowned coxless four begin their challenge for the Olympic title, of the need for similar enjoyment.
This was engagingly refreshing given that he is a member of a crew, which includes Steve Redgrave, bidding for a fifth successive gold medal, something that has never been achieved by any endurance athlete in the 104 years of the Games, and also Matthew Pinsent, twice Olympic champion and possibly the finest oarsman in the world.
You would have thought that Foster, 30, himself a bronze medal-winner in Atlanta, would have been worn down by the worry of it all, particularly since his four have drawn the Australians, second behind Britain in the 1999 world championships, in Sunday’s heat from which the first three go through to Thursday’s semi-final. Not a bit of it.
He said: "You have got to enjoy the Olympics and not just take it seriously. Smiling does not mean that I am not focusing when I need to. I tend to be a smiler. I like to have fun, I enjoy what I am doing. That is why I do it. I do not do it to be rich."
This attitude has even extended to some horseplay in the Olympic village, which fortunately did not harm his room-mate James Cracknell, the fourth member of the crew. "Steve and Matt have their room and James and I have ours and we are the ones, who are going to get into trouble if there is any mischief to be had."
Foster suggested to Cracknell, who weighs almost 16 stone, that they should put their bunk-beds on top of each other. "I sent him to the top one. There was no way that I was climbing up there and suggested that a table would be a great ladder. I did not actually loosen the screws but maybe someone did. He started going up when the table collapsed and he was left on his bum halfway across the room. If James had injured himself, it would have been serious but as it was we just wet ourselves laughing. No harm was done." Unlike when Foster, who admits he is accident-prone, seriously cut his hand on broken glass in 1998.
Foster also recounted how James and he had once managed to smuggle into a Spanish hotel a large stone statue, which they placed in the lavatory of their crew-mates and then clothed the statue with rowing kit and set up a video-camera to film their reaction. He remembers: "Steve jumped out of his skin when he went into the lavatory and thought it was Matthew who had done it and then Matt jumped as well and they realised it was us who had been playing the joke."
Foster knows well how intense everybody will become as Britain’s rowers have a week of qualifying rounds and repechages before the finals next week-end. The men’s pair of Greg Searle and Ed Coode have drawn Australia, Canada, Slovenia and Poland in the heat, from which the first three go to the semi-finals, while the eight, silver medal-winners in the 1999 world championships, have an awkward task. They face Australia, Canada and Russia with the winner automatically reaching the final and the rest going to the repechage on Wednesday.
Yet it is the coxless four where the greatest British interest lies, because of the possibility that Redgrave will enhance his already legendary status in international sport. Although the crew finished fourth in the Lucerne Regatta, they have beaten all the countries, Italy, New Zealand and Australia, who finished ahead of them in July. It is not as if a new crew has emerged.
If the water is at all rough, which is quite possible in the fresh winds here, this should favour the British, who have what Foster terms "three big sluggers" in Pinsent, Redgrave and Cracknell.
However, Foster speaks of the crew as being four equals. "Everyone has an individual role to play technically on and off the water. No one person lays down the law. We are all experienced."
It is the status of the crew and the respect that they engender that could be vital over the next week. As Foster says: "You cannot walk into the dining hall without someone giving Steve a glance, whether it is from rowing or another sport. That is nice. It gives you a buzz, gives him a buzz and if you get the look from someone you are racing against, maybe it gives you the edge."
The Times
