But that is how Rob Waddell began when he gave the opening speech yesterday at the two-day Connecting Coaches Conference being held in Dunedin.
"Coaches are the people who keep athletes performing," he told the Otago Daily Times.
"So I started my speech by thanking them for what they have put in to New Zealand sport because often it is done just out of passion."
Waddell, who has had a long and varied career as an athlete and in sports administration, won gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the single sculls.
He was twice crowned world champion (1998, 1999) but switched to sailing in 2003, joining Team New Zealand as a grinder.
He returned to rowing in a bid to secure selection for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and went head to head with double Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale for a spot. Drysdale won the best of three series 2-1 to secure the Olympic berth.
Waddell returned to sailing as grinder for Team New Zealand and, following the unsuccessful America’s Cup challenge in 2013, moved into sport administration and was chef de mission at the 2014 Commonweath Games and 2016 Olympics.
"The theme of the conference was striving for excellence and my story was sort of weaved into that," Waddell said, adding he knew what it was like to achieve your goals and also to fall short.
"The biggest influence in my career were my coaches and I had three very influential coaches. Early on Gordon Trevett taught me at school and made a big difference early on."
International coaches Steve Gunn and Dick Tonks also had a big impact on Waddell’s rowing career.
"They all brought different things and contributed to the final piece of the puzzle."
Waddell believes there are some good programmes in place within New Zealand sport to support developing coaches.
"We got 18 medals in Rio and behind every one of those medals was a coach. So we are seeing more opportunity and more growth and long may it continue," Waddell said.
Silver Ferns coach Janine Southby, former rugby league international Tony Iro and Commonwealth Games weightlifter Nigel Avery are among the other key speakers at the conference, which concludes today.
