AUCKLAND – For New Zealand’s trampoline gymnastics team, the Paris Olympics will be a labour of love.

Dylan Schmidt and Maddie Davidson were Olympic teammates in Tokyo, but return to this summer’s Games as a couple seeking medals and inspiration from each other.

In a career of ups and downs, former world champion Schmidt became New Zealand’s first Olympic medallist in gymnastics when the 27-year-old nabbed a bronze at the Tokyo Games.

He will compete in a third Olympics in the “City of Love” and cheer on his 25-year-old partner Davidson, who became New Zealand’s first gymnast to qualify for the women’s event at Tokyo.

While Schmidt and Davidson can bounce ideas off each other as elite trampolinists, both are mindful of the need to keep a healthy split between their sport and private lives.

“It’s not the first topic that comes up when we go out to dinner. We tend to leave the advice to our coaches,” Schmidt said of their athletic pursuits.

Keeping a professional distance is not as hard as it sounds, given the pair train at opposite ends of New Zealand.

Schmidt is based in North Island metropolis Auckland, while Davidson is based in Christchurch in the South Island. They try to catch up every couple of weeks.

Romance between athletes is often forged in the cauldron of competition and Paris will undoubtedly light the spark for a number of future relationships.

United States women’s football icon Megan Rapinoe met her partner Sue Bird, the former basketball player, at a team photoshoot for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Both qualified for Tokyo as a couple.

Australian rugby sevens players Charlotte Caslick and Lewis Holland also competed as an item in Japan. But Covid-19 stole much of the romance that could have developed from the Tokyo Games, where athletes were largely unable to mix outside their entourages due to strict social-distancing protocols.

Sparks still ignited from within in the New Zealand camp.

“He has been a role model for me,” Davidson said previously of Schmidt.

“It’s a hard sport when people don’t know your country, but with Dylan doing so well, it trickles down. He’s really helping us push through as well.”

She was among the few New Zealanders able to watch Schmidt’s podium moment in Tokyo.

No such impediments exist this time round for Paris, where the Kiwi couple will arrive well prepared and with a proper complement of family and friends to roar them on.

Davidson narrowly missed the final in Tokyo but expects to reach new heights at the Accor Arena, after working with a sports psychologist on her mental game.

Away from the competition hall, the couple are not concerned whether they room together in the Olympic Village.

“We’re not going to be kicking and screaming if we’re not rooming together. We’re there for the performance, you know. We’re not there for a holiday,” said Schmidt. REUTERS