Olympian Danyon Loader Named Olympic Ambassador by New Zealand Olympic Committee

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, June 14. OLYMPIAN Danyon Loader has been appointed as the New Zealand Olympic Committee's first Olympic Ambassador.

Loader is one of the greatest sportsmen produced by New Zealand. He won the Olympic 200m butterfly silver medal at Barcelona in 1992 and climbed even higher at Atlanta four years later, scooping the 200m and 400m freestyle gold medals.

When his three world championship medals and six Commonwealth Games medals are added to the mix, it is no wonder Loader was named New Zealand's Athlete of the 1990s.

Now 32, Loader has gradually moved back into the public spotlight in recent years, after retiring from swimming in 1998. He has worked as a Wellington-based mentor with Swimming New Zealand, and during the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games was a popular host at New Zealand House. On his return home he surprised even his friends by appearing on the Dancing with the Stars television program.

In his new position he will represent the New Zealand Olympic Committee at various events, including featuring in the "Bring on Beijing" campaign in the lead-up to next year's Olympics.

New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary-general Barry Maister says: "The Olympic movement here is about encouraging New Zealanders to do their very best, not just in sport but across all areas of their lives. We're very proud to have Danyon working with us as our first Olympic Ambassador."

If the Olympic Committee was looking for a positive role model, it could hardly have done better than choose Loader.

Ever since he swam for New Zealand at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games as a wide-eyed 14-year-old schoolboy with a distinctive ponytail, Loader has represented the very best of sport.

He has competed fairly, trained diligently and been obviously proud of his New Zealand connections. In fact, during the Atlanta Olympics, a main motivating factor was that he came from New Zealand.

"When we were introduced to the crowd before our races, there would be huge cheers for the Americans and the Australians, but when a New Zealander was announced, there would only be applause from our team-mates," says Loader. "It made me very determined. I'd think, ‘Don't you write off the underdog! Don't you count out the New Zealander – don't you dare!'

"I wanted to show them that the even the small countries can produce champions. Anthony Nesty had won a swimming gold medal for Surinam in 1988, beating all the big names, and I wanted to do that too."

Loader, always a lateral thinker, says he did not draw early inspiration from other swimmers. "I wasn't the sort of guy who looked at famous swimmers and thought, ‘I want to be like them'.

"However, Mr Laing [his coach, Duncan Laing] would get the results of leading age-group swimmers from overseas and I was able to compare my times with those of other swimmers of my age. This encouraged me, especially when I could see that as I kept improving, I was gradually getting ahead of a lot of them."

Loader mentions his parents and Laing as huge factors in his swimming career.

"My parents sacrificed a lot for me to be a swimmer. My first overseas trip was to the Pan-Pacific championships in Canada. New Zealand Swimming had budgeted for a team of 12. I qualified legitimately, but I was the 13th swimmer, so my parents set about helping to raise the money to get me the trip. They must have sold 500 dozen cheese rolls on that occasion! That's the sort of support they always gave me.

"And without Mr Laing [throughout his swimming career, even when he was an Olympic champion, Loader referred to his coach as Mr Laing], there would be no Danyon Loader, Olympic champion. He made it possible.

"Mr Laing's son, Stefan, told me a story about the time when Mr Laing had just moved south to Dunedin and was speaking at the Otago Swimming Association annual meeting. He said his ambition was to produce an Olympic champion. I think they laughed at him.

"I'm glad we were able to show them that he was right."

But, if we're looking for a source of early inspiration for Loader, it came as much as anything from Way of the Peaceful Warrior, a semi-autobiographical novel by an American, Dan McMillan.

"It tells the story of a youngster who was an aspiring gymnast," says Loader. "He had a motor bike accident and was told he would never walk again, but through determination and hard work, he proved them wrong and ended up becoming a world trampoline champion."

A key part of the story concerns a chance meeting Millman has with a gas station attendant named Socrates, who becomes Millman's spiritual teacher and shows him how to become a Peaceful Warrior. There has been debate about whether Socrates even existed, or whether the character was merely a spiritual guide. Regardless, the book became a best-seller than changed many people's lives.

Another of Laing's, sons, Rick, gave the book to Loader and it had a profound effect on him.

Inspiration comes from unexpected places – a book, a quick remark, a chance meeting. The Olympic Committee is hoping that through his role as Olympic Ambassador, Loader will inspire other New Zealanders.

"I enjoyed working for the Olympic Committee in Melbourne last year," says Loader. "I met supporters, parents and sponsors and hopefully I was able to add a little of my insight. I see the Ambassador's role as being a natural development of that."

Special thanks to the New Zealand Olympic Committee for contributing this report.

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