medal suffices for ID card

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 30

medal suffices for ID card

PA Seoul The New Zealand bronze medal swimmer, Paul Kingsman, found himself without the allimportant ID card as he headed back into the Olympic Village early yesterday morning. But with the Olympic medal substituting around his neck, security guards soon let him through. “He said he’s got the medal instead of the card, and wouldn’t have the medal if he wasn’t a swimmer,” his swimming manager, Merle Johnson, said yesterday. “We got through all right.” Kingsman’s ID card had been in his bag which another competitor had

taken on ahead for him. Ms Johnson said Kingsman’s medal would be a boost to Anthony Mosse for his 200 metre butterfly swim and other members of the New Zealand team. “It is going to give impetus to everybody in the team, particularly a couple who haven’t achieved a personal best since they’ve been here and that’s always disappointing,” she said, “I’m sure this will give everybody a boost in the right direction.” Ms Johnson said she would not be making any complaint about the announcing error which had Kingsman being introduced as a Soviet

swimmer at the medal ceremony and the Soviet national anthem being called New Zealand’s. “We wouldn’t have minded if it had been New Zealand’s,” she quipped. “I guess everybody makes mistakes and he just kept on making worse ones,” she said of the errors. "But I felt sorry for Paul. It was probably one of his big moments and to have somebody foul it up by a slip of the tongue or reading a wrong bit of paper... for him that was maybe a little disappointing initially. “But to hear your name

called out like that must be really amazing — I’m sure nothing is ever going to detract for him.” Kingsman confirmed this after the race. “They could have called me Kermit the frog and I still would have stood up there.” Kingsman stood firm initially, willing them to correct the error and call out his name and country. But finally a hostess from behind the dais shoved and shoved until a reluctant Kingsman mounted the dais to become the only New Zealand Olympic medallist ever to be introduced as a Russian. “I took a deep breath

Day 7

and was expecting my name,” said the 21-year-old Kingsman who swam a magnificent race to clock 2m 0.48 s — the fastest ever swum by a New Zealander and a Commonwealth record. Kingsman’s coach, Hilton Brown, who somehow cajoled his way into an Olympic accreditation so he could be close to his swimmer (Brown is not an official member of the New Zealand team). Kingsman and Mr Brown are very close and Brown spurred his charge on by being with him over the last week or so — and perhaps with a bizarre bet he made with Kingsman.