Deaflympics Athletes Farewell

Thursday 16 December 2004

Good afternoon. Today I need to start by passing on an apology from Ruth Dyson, who is the Patron of the Deaf Society of Canterbury. Ruth says that she has to be in Wellington today but would like to pass on her congratulations to the athletes for being selected. She sends, in short, her very best wishes.

I am also told to be nice and acknowledge our interpreter for this afternoon, Tony Swindale. Thanks Tony, I'll try my best not to put you into overdrive.

I'm told the last time we sent such a big team to the Deaflympics it was held here in Christchurch. It was a great event and I'm sure that this Melbourne event will be so too.

It is good that we are having this ceremony this week when the memory of Arthur Lydiard is still strong. It is hard to think of a better example of how the Kiwi spirit can take on the world and win. Old Arthur knew he was right and the medals his pupils piled up, around the world provided the proof.

He had a disability of sorts too. For him the disability was that he was a Kiwi who knew best back in the days when most Kiwis were convinced we could not possibly know better than the "experts" from overseas. He did know better.

It just took the rest of New Zealand nearly 50 years to know that.

We are a nation of world beaters. With a tiny population by world standards, we can always punch above our weight. I'm sure you will provide us with more evidence of that next year

I'll hand over to Janet Stokes now for the presentations.