Rob Waddell winning a gold medal in Sydney inspired Carl Meyer to set his sights at a higher level and aim for the Olympics.
He was an engineering student at the University of Canterbury at the time and was a promising rower at junior level.
"I had been in New Zealand junior crews but had not considered going any higher," Meyer said.
"When Rob won the single sculls at Sydney I knew there was a possibility that I could do that, too."
Waddell's gold medal in the single sculls showed Meyer that hard work on the lake could bring dividends.
Meyer (26), who has an honours degree in engineering, competed at an open world championships for the first time in 2005 and has stayed in the elite crew ever since.
He is an experienced international rower and competed in his first world championships in Milan in 2003.
The fours crew finished 11th.
While he has been in the four it has had mixed results in world championships over the past five years: 11th (2003), fifth (Olympics 2004), sixth (2005), ninth (2006 ), first (2007).
"I wouldn't like to make any predictions for Beijing from that record," Meyer said.
"It's a scatter plot."
He has experience in the Olympics after finishing fifth in the final of the coxless four in Athens in 2004.
The other crew members were Eric Murray, Donald Leach and Mahe Drysdale.
What did he learn from Athens?
"The Olympics is a big event, but the rowing side of it is no bigger than a world championships," he said.
"You don't need to get too carried away.
"The advantage we had at Athens was that the New Zealand rowing team lived in a house of its own close to the regatta and away from the village.
"It was low-key and a good place to build up and race."
It will be different this time because the rowing crews will spend a week at the Olympic village before moving to their headquarters close to the rowing lake.
"There will be things to look at and excite us," he said.
"This is good because you need that to lift you a little bit.
"But when it comes to racing we will be in our own hotel near the course and will be able to get on with the job from there."
What made the difference last year when you won the gold medal?
"We trained smarter. Technically we moved on a bit. There were a multitude of factors," he said.
"Everyone found their niche in the boat. Bondy [Hamish Bond] moved to stroke and I moved to the bow. A lot of little things came in at the right time."
Are you apprehensive about Beijing?
"No. We want to perform as well as we know we can," Meyer said.
"I want to enjoy it. I see it as a challenge.
"So far, in Europe this year, we haven't performed up to our capability. The challenge for us at Beijing is to perform."
Where you disappointed with the World Cup performances this year?
"Definitely. You go into races as reigning world champions and are expected to show your wares," Meyer said.
"We didn't and were quite shocked about it. Since then it's been hard.
"We tried a technical change between Lucerne and the Polish World Cup.
"It worked a little but there wasn't a great improvement," he said.
"The first few weeks of training in Australia were tough, finding out what we wanted.
"But it seems to be improving. We can only try to get back what we had last year.
"Yes, it was a wake-up call, but we didn't realise we were asleep. We had good training results compared to the other New Zealand crews.
"We didn't believe we were off the boil. It just fell apart for us in Europe."
Coach Chris Nilsson's philosophy is not to change the training methods that worked successfully last year.
"He wants us to stick with the things we know best," Meyer said.
"We are not changing things much at all."
Quintin Meyer, his father, is a roading contractor and Meyer grew up on a small lifestyle block close to Alexandra.
His mother's name is Susan.
He boarded at Otago Boys High School, from 1995-99 and came under the influence of coaching great Fred Strachan.
"He took our school rowing to a higher level," Meyer said.
Carl Meyer
Rower
Age: 26.
Education: Otago Boys High School, University of Canterbury.
Occupation: Engineer.
Event: Men's coxless four.
Race schedule: August 9, heats (9.30pm); August 11, repechage (9.50pm); August 13, semifinals (8.50pm); August 16, finals (9.30pm).
Other team members: Hamish Bond, James Dallinger, Eric Murray.
Record: World champions, Munich, 2007.
Main opposition: Great Britain, US, Netherlands.
Coach: Chris Nilsson.
