Oar-some: the company that won 12 Olympic medals.

Croker Oars has a boast few businesses can make: a count of 12 medals from the London Olympics. Sitting alongside Jamaica in the medals count, the oar maker from Oxley Island in NSW had its products gripped by rowers from Ukraine, France, the United States, New Zealand and Australia. About one-quarter of the oars used in this Olympics came from Croker.

Now, as the excitement of London wanes, preparations for Brazil begin. But Croker Oars general manager John Corbett predicts getting supply into the South American nation will be a challenge.

Imports into South America have tended to face high tariffs, he says, which are set to be a problem for the games. “We’ve got a lot of enquiries that don’t turn into sales because they run into these tariff problems,” Corbett says.

Combine that with a lack of experience in holding such large scale sporting events – Rio 2016 is the first Olympics to be held in South America – and there’s the potential for difficulty in areas such as communications and logistics, too, Corbett warns.

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