2 weeks Ago By Greg Bruce
How did one of our greatest-ever Olympians emerge seemingly fully formed from an organisation that had seemed to be in perpetual crisis? And what’s her dad got to do with it? It was the feel-good moment of the 2024 Olympics . Ellesse Andrews was the star, but it was her dad Jon who stole the show. He was fizzing, stoked, rapt, over the moon, could barely contain himself.
It’s unlikely a dad’s pride has ever been so perfectly captured on camera in the moment of its fullest blooming. His daughter had just won her first Olympic gold medal , New Zealand’s second-ever gold in Olympic cycling , and the country’s first since 2004. He was, in that moment, the proudest dad in the world and he didn’t care who knew it.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited in my whole life!” he told the Sky Sport reporter at the finish line immediately after the race. “I didn’t even watch her finish!” Then he either forgot he was on live television or remembered that the reporter was the least important person there, and started talking directly to his daughter: “I saw you come through the bend and I was like ‘there’s no way you’re being beaten from there’. I just turned and ran for the track.
” He was there not just because he was her dad, but because he was her coach – and not just her coach but the coach of the entire New Zealand sprint cycling team. And he was elated not just because his daughter had won Olympic gold but because her win had delivered a redemption story for a sport that desperately needed one..
