Facing up to the mainstream news media is one of those trials that all Olympians must bear with good grace: answering the same questions again and again, with a smile.
And so it was today for our equestrian team at Rio, where the first official press conference was held. The room was filled with reporters, photographers and camera people from all over, eager to get a quote or two. Some were very knowledgable about equestrian sport and asked intelligent questions; others, we’ll just say, were less so.
Predictably, the vintage status of two of the riders came up almost straight away. As the Canadian reporter from Reuters put it to Julie Brougham, rather delicately we thought: “Julie, demographically perhaps you are a bit out of the mould… what’s it like to have the experience [of being a first-time Olympian] given your experience in life?”
“Yes it’s quite amazing, I’ve created a record and I haven’t done anything,” Julie laughed it off deftly, and immediately turned the focus back to where it belongs. “I actually started competing at seven years old, and never really stopped… I’ve been a little slow getting to the Olympics but I haven’t had a good enough horse before and this time I have. Vom Feinsten is going really well, and he’s got a good future ahead… I’m very proud of him.”
Well played, Julie, well played.
We weren’t done with the age question yet, though. Next up was Radio Sport’s Rickki Swannell, who wondered of Sir Mark Todd and Julie (who she described as the “elder statespeople”) how they coped with having to deal with “rowdy hockey teams” and the like in the athletes’ village?
“I’m actually riding against the children of my contemporaries,” Sir Mark graciously acknowledged. ” But the wonderful thing about the Olympic Games – and we’ve all said it when we’re wandering around the food halls and the village – you just see people of all shapes and sizes, and all ages. There is no particular mould of an athlete, as we all do different sports which all require different things. It’s wonderful to see people of all ages and all different sorts coming together for the Olympics.”
Clarke Johnstone was next in the firing line, and he was asked “how surprised” he was to find himself at his first Olympics alongside a man he’d presumably idolised growing up, in Sir Mark.
Patiently, politely, Clarke pointed out that in actual fact, he’s ridden on teams with Sir Mark for five or six years now, so it’s not a surprise at all, but it was excellent all the same. “He’s such a great competitor and has lots of advice, and is very supportive. We younger ones are really lucky to get the chance to ride alongside him, and who knows how long he will keep going for.”
Jock fielded the most interesting question of all, when a TV One reporter inquired if he would be getting some dressage tips from “Julia”. Would it give him a bit of an edge having someone of “greater expertise” alongside at this event?
Pause. “We’ll let you know at the end of the week,” smiled Jock. And then he added: “In our sport, we have had our trainers for a long time and we have got our way we prepare our horses for the day, so none of us will be looking to change that this weekend.”
Julie smiled and nodded as Jock said this, as it had come a bit of a surprise to her that perhaps she was expected to start coaching the eventers!
The Reuters guy had another question, this one for Mark, and at last the focus was on the horses. How did he know when a horse was good enough for an Olympics?
“Generally, you know fairly early on if a horse has ability, but as Julie said…”, Mark said with just the slightest emphasis on her correct name “…you never really know until you get them to the top level whether they’ve got what it takes.”
It was a relief when TVNZ’s Peter Williams had the floor, asking Mark if he thought that dressage would play a big part in the overall result this time around.
“These days the competition is so strong that unless you kick off with a good dressage score you are playing catch-up,” Mark explained. “In the old days people that normally did good dressage weren’t good at cross-country so you had a chance to catch up if you weren’t among the leaders, but nowdays everybody is very good at all three phases, so the dressage is very important. One of our strengths is that we have team of four horses that are capable of being competitive in dressage phase and we have to hope that we stay clear from then on… we will be looking at all our horses to score over 70%… if you want to win a medal at these Games you’re going to have to have a team that can score over 70% in dressage, and then not add to it after that.”
Mark confirmed that the riders haven’t yet been allowed to check out the cross-country course properly, but they’d managed a peep at the first few and last few jumps as they sit adjacent to the galloping track. “The whole place looks amazing, they’ve done a superb job.”
Jock added: “We have everything we need to prepare and train for this event, it’s a very good course designer and I’m sure it will be a good course and well-prepared.”
Some of the reporters afterwards commented that they thought it was a bit odd that the riders didn’t get to see the cross-country until just before they rode over it. They compared it to other sports, such as canoe slalom, where competitors had been practising on the “track” for some months.
Unfortunately, Jonelle Price was late to the press conference, due to a taxi not turning up when it should have, so we missed the chance to hear how her famous forthrightness would have dealt with the questions!
The riders were much in demand for one-on-one interviews with various news outlets, so we’re sure you will see and hear much more about them in the hours to come!
