11 August 2004
Presenter Linda Clarke Radio New Zealand "Nine to Noon"
Joseph Romanos (correspondent in Athens): A lot of talk about that. It's a funny thing. I mean they've got the village… the New Zealand accommodation at the village done fantastically. I think it's the best out of any team where you know, there's posters of previous Olympians and this and that, a huge amount of New Zealand material around to make the athletes feel at home and everywhere you see black flags with silver ferns on them. That's their flag here and that's the flag that the athletes would like to have as the New Zealand flag and I think that you know, these are young people, these are not people who served in the last war, the Second World War or something, and I think that, that would mean more to them… or in fact I know that, talking to them, than the current New Zealand flag. There's been a bit of a push in the team… and I know that Dave Currie has spoken about it today, you know, to see if that can be changed in future.
Presenter: What, so in future they would want to compete under the silver fern?
Romanos: I think they want sport to push to have the flag changed.
Presenter: Well, that's interesting isn't it? I mean in past… I think it was at the Sydney Olympics where Kathy Freeman carried… once she won the gold medal she carried the aboriginal flag around the stadium.
Romanos: She did.
Presenter: I guess we could probably expect the same thing with the kiwi athletes this time round?
Romanos: I know the New Zealand flag has been brave and people have fought for it and all that but I can say when you get to an Olympic Games, there's one sort of symbol or flag that other countries will identify with and that is a black flag with a silver fern. They are the two things in sport that other countries identify with. They certainly don't identify with our current flag.
Radio New Zealand
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