O-SPY
Musical orienteer
O-SPY With everyone in self isolation, hermits have become irrelevant Orienteers are unique
R
ecently in New Zealand, Wellington hosted the nationals in the Manawatū. It was fantastic to have our national event take place despite a year full of uncertainty. This was the thirtyseventh National championships I have attended across fifteen different sports, and my first for Orienteering. Over the last thirty years, I’ve been to national championships from Whangarei to Queenstown. Until last weekend, I had never been to a national event where people have not had to be reminded to remove their rubbish, dispose of it properly or to take rubbish home. When we left the forest areas it was free of any rubbish and there was no sign that an event had taken place. No reminders were necessary – wouldn’t it be great if all Kiwis cared this much? After the Middle Distance event I left my jacket next to one of the tents at the end of the day. I was not concerned about leaving it behind. I had confidence it would be waiting at the event centre the following day -– and it was. Unlike other events, it didn’t cross my mind that someone might have walked off with it. These things may seem small and insignificant, but I feel it says a lot about orienteers and the general nature of people in our sport. Christo Peters (ONZ General Manager)
New Sport for Olympics confirmed
W
hile there are serious doubts emerging about whether the 2021 Tokyo Olympics will go ahead, a new sport has been confirmed for the Paris Olympics 2024. 44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2021
A still image from Pat Jaffe’s official video of Eldorado.
O
ne of the things we like about the Orienteering community is that many of them have other talents. Some of you will know that Pat Jaffe (patjaffe.com), WOC representative and OV e-bulletin editor, is also a well credentialed jazz pianist. He has already launched his debut album - Eldorado - which includes a tribute to the late Hannah Goddard, a track that recently won a composition prize. Pat’s stunning debut release Eldorado sits somewhere at the midpoint between jazz and chamber music. Recorded in Reykjavík, the album features the stellar Icelandic chamber ensemble, Siggi String Quartet. Pat was the recipient of the 2020 Allan Zavod Performers’ Award, has recorded with the Monash Art Ensemble and the Jonathan Cooper Quintet, and recently has been working on a collaboration with Academy Award winning singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová. The album cover features stunning photography by Krystal Neumann.
No – it’s not Orienteering. It’s Breakdancing. Paris Games chief Tony Estanguet said: “The inclusion of Breakdancing at the Olympics may be surprising but organizers were drawn to the sport’s potential to attract a younger fan base and grow the Olympic audience in the internet age. It’s a sport that is widely watched on all digital platforms, widely consumed by young people. It’s very impressive technically and physically, what these athletes manage to do, and that’s why we were attracted to this sport. The feedback has been very good.”
2016, when skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing were added to the program for Tokyo 2020 along with baseball, softball and karate. “With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect anymore that they will come automatically to us.” The inclusion of these sports is a testament to how extreme sports — which had previously been seen by some as pursuits for rebels and thrill seekers — have been moving toward the mainstream spotlight for the past several decades.
Breakdancing was one of four new sports to win a spot at the Games in Paris — alongside surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing — after the International Olympic Committee ratified their inclusion earlier last year. Surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing were scheduled to make their Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which have been moved to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We want to take sport to the youth,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in
Pat at WOC in 2019.
Breakdancer
