Ben Fouhy could be lone wolf: Sparc

Sparc says there is room for embattled kayaker Ben Fouhy to work outside the boundaries of Canoe Racing New Zealand in the lead-up to the next Olympics, but said that should only happen after attempts at mediation.

And a leading athlete manager believes the situation should never have spiralled out of control in the first place and needs to be resolved as soon as possible to get Fouhy back on the water.

A frustrated and angry Fouhy walked away from the sport two weeks ago because he refused to participate in what he's described as a farcical and unnecessary national trial.

His indifference to paddling, after a year off following his fourth place at the Beijing Olympics, was further heightened when national coach Ian Ferguson told the Sunday Star-Times last week that Fouhy was a difficult athlete to work with and that the team was better off without him.

It was the culmination of years of conflict between Fouhy and Ferguson under the auspices of a national body which seemed ill-equipped to handle the situation.

Nick Cowan, who manages both shot-putter Valerie Vili and swimmer Moss Burmester, told the Star-Times the "system should never have let it get to this situation".

"Hopefully somebody takes some leadership here to resolve this," Cowan said.

"Given the small size of New Zealand's talent pool and given our immense desire to win Olympic medals, it really needs to be resolved."

Cowan is of the view that an athlete like Fouhy, who has an Olympic silver medal and a world title to his name, has to be listened to by those charged with plotting his competitive future.

"It should never have been allowed to get to this point. Every athlete has needs and wants that are different and unique and if the desired outcome is a gold medal then we should listen to the athlete."

In this case, it's Fouhy's desire to do things his own way has often put him in direct conflict with CRNZ and Ferguson.

But Paula Kearns, who has been chief executive of CRNZ for only eight weeks, is adamant there was no need to make an exception for Fouhy. "It's extremely disappointing Ben has made this decision," Kearns told the Star-Times.

"He's an enormously-talented athlete but there are times in life you have to operate within certain systems and processes and that's the way the world is. I'm more than happy with the selection process developed by the high performance manager and will back that.

"All the athletes and coaches understood the selection process, and that includes Ben. I thought the selection process was fair to all athletes and I agreed with it. There was no need for any exceptions to be made."

However, Martin Toomey, the general manager of Sparc's high performance programme, believes there is room for the lone wolf.

"There's always room to look at it and it's something we do continuously look at," Toomey told the Star-Times.

"Back at the 2000 Olympics that was how the [old] Sports Foundation was operating its high performance unit – the medal-contending athletes were dealt with outside the system. It worked for some but not for others.

"We are considering it again currently but we haven't landed on how it would be dealt with it. The difficulty is: when does an athlete become eligible to move into that kind of space and how do you maintain the relationship with other groups of athletes? We wouldn't say no and we'd definitely look at it but what's happened with Ben is not what's brought it to the front of our minds."

Toomey said before an athlete like Fouhy could be funded and backed to run his own programme, Sparc would look at a mediation process wth the national organisation.

"You'd have to look if there was some way of bringing the parties together but if not, and if you believe that athlete could bring medal success you'd look at other options.

"If you think they're a genuine medal chance you'd be proactive but they still need to be engaged in the sport."

Fouhy, right now, is no space to think of competing. He's emotionally and mentally exhausted but Toomey believed he and Fouhy would talk again "a little bit down the track and see where his head is".

- © Fairfax NZ News