A group of young Hauraki students were inspired by a recent school visit from an Olympic ambassador.
New Zealand rower and Olympic ambassador Lucy Spoors was welcomed into Ngatea Primary School on August 13 to speak to the year five to year eight students.
Deputy Principal Melissa Taaffe said Lucy spoke about her career and journey into rowing, her experiences, the wins and losses and how she made it to two Olympics.
“Students got to hold her gold and silver medals and ask her lots of questions.”
Greta Joynes of year-8 and Andi Austin of year 11 told The Profile they were both interested and inspired by Lucy’s story.
Lucy competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and achieved a silver medal, and again at the 2024 Paris Olympic, where she snapped up a gold medal in the women’s double sculls final with Brooke Francis.
The students said they learned that Lucy’s regime at an Olympic level consisted of early starts,
A big breakfast, long training sessions and then another big breakfast.
Even though Greta, 12, was a swimmer and had never rowed before, she said most of the things Lucy talked about were relatable not just for swimming, but most sports.
Andi, 11, had seen rowing on the television and said it looked like fun so “I might do rowing in high school”, she said.
Something that surprised the students was the Olympic medals.
Andi said they passed the silver and gold medals around the class.
“They were a bit heavy but they looked so cool and amazing, they had on them the Olympic logo and an angel on the back of the medals.”
Greta said she held the gold medal and it had a piece of the Eiffel Tower in it.
“It was heavy. I expected it to feel lighter, and I thought it was going to be all gold, but it’s just gold plated.”
Something that stood out to Greta and Andi about Lucy’s message was her perseverance.
They said it was important and interesting how Lucy thought it would take four years to qualify for the Olympics, but it took her more than eight years to get there.
“She was happy when she got in.”
