Our diversity is our power. Our past and our future. All people. Many sports. One New Zealand Team. These are magic moments we can all be proud of from the last 100 years.
WE BECOME THE NEW ZEALAND TEAM, A FIRST MEDAL FOR THE SILVER FERN.
Our first Olympic Games wearing the silver fern was in Antwerp 1920. The team travelled nine weeks by boat to get there.
Swimmer Violet Walrond #9 was NZ’s first woman to compete at the Olympic Games. As a teenage girl, she had to stay in her room while her teammates were training and she wasn’t allowed to attend the all- male team function on her return.
Darcy Hadfield #8 was the first of the New Zealand team to win an Olympic medal, winning a bronze in the Single Sculls Rowing.
Arthur Porritt #12 won Olympic bronze in the men’s 100 metres, a race made famous by the film "Chariots of Fire".
Olympic athletics was opened to women in 1928 and sprinter Norma Wilson #23 became the first female New Zealand athlete to compete on the track at the Olympic Games.
Ted Morgan #21 became New Zealand’s first gold medallist to wear the silver fern when he won the welterweight boxing competition in 1928.
‘MY GOD, HE’S DONE IT’ – OUR FIRST ATHLETICS GOLD MEDAL
Picton’s Lawrence ‘Jumbo’ Jackson #31, of Ngai Tahu, and Blenheim’s Jack Macdonald #35, of Rangitane, were the first Māori to compete at the Olympic Games. They were members of the New Zealand rowing eight.
Thelma Kench #32 competed in the 100m and held the national title in 1930–1932. Her time equalled the world record, and was at 16 the youngest to hold the title. In the Olympic semifinals of the 100m race she was third after 50m but dropped back to sixth.
Rowing silver medallists Fred Thompson #44 and Bob Stiles #42 were extremely busy at Los Angeles. Not only did they perform brilliantly in the pairs, but they were also required to row twice in the New Zealand eight.
Billy Savidan #40 had two heartbreaking misses in Los Angeles, finishing fourth in both the 5000m and 10,000m.
New Zealand’s first athletics gold medal was won by Jack Lovelock #33 in the 1500m at Berlin in 1936, and in world record time.
Lovelock’s medal ceremony was witnessed by 120,000 people.
PRE-GAMES TRAINING TAKES PLACE ON A SHIP AND WAR DISRUPTS THE GAMES
Due to WWII, only the 1948 Games where held
It was difficult to keep fit on-board: backstroke swimmer Ngaire Lane #56 used the ship’s tiny 3m dunk pool; hurdler Dutch Holland #55 took a hurdle with him, but found it impossible to jump it on the rolling ship; boxer Bob Goslin #53 sparred against road cyclist Nick Carter #51; weightlifter Maurice Crow #52 could not practise as he could not stand steadily; and distance runner Harold Nelson #57 ran around and around the ship’s decks.
The New Zealand Team also took some early steps to learn the haka, attracting an appreciative crowd on board the Port Hobart.
Though winless in London, team captain Harold Nelson #57 won the prestigious six-mile event and came second in the three-mile event at the Auckland Empire Games.
While medal-less in the 400 m hurdles, John ‘Dutch’ Holland #55 would return to the Olympics four years later to win a bronze medal
The seven-person 1948 team to London was the last NZ Olympic team to make the demanding six-week trip to the other side of the world by ship on-board the Port Hobart.
MEDALS FOR NEW ZEALAND’S OLYMPIC WOMEN, WE FLY TO THE GAMES FOR THE FIRST TIME AND WE HIT THE WINTER SLOPES.
Dame Yvette Williams #76 became our first female Olympic gold medallist when she won the long jump gold medal.
1952 in Helsinki was the first time the New Zealand national anthem was played during an Olympic medal ceremony.
Jean Stewart #74 won the bronze medal in the women’s 100m backstroke.
Three medals were won at the 1952 Olympic Games, by Dame Yvette Williams #76, swimmer Jean Stewart #74 and hurdler John Holland #55. It was the first Olympic Games at which New Zealand had won more than one medal.
The very first New Zealanders competed at an Olympic Winter Games. In the words of athlete Sir Roy McKenzie #62 the team was “given black sweaters and had silver fern patches to sew on…”
In Melbourne, Jack Cropp #80 and Peter Mander #107 won the Sharpie class sailing gold medal. This was the first time New Zealand competed in sailing at an Olympic Games.
The ‘Pommy Kiwi’ Norman Read #111 wins the Gold medal in the Melbourne Olympic Games 50km Walk.
THE GOLDEN HOUR AND THE INCREDIBLE TOKYO OLYMPIC GAMES
The ‘Golden Hour’ occurred at Rome when Sir Peter Snell #151 (800m) and Murray Halberg #94 (5,000m) both won gold within the same hour.
Barry Magee #136 won New Zealand’s first Olympic marathon medal when he took the bronze at Rome in 1960. Since then, Mike Ryan #245 (bronze in 1968) and Lorraine Moller #476 (bronze in 1992) have followed him.
Marise Chamberlain #166 became New Zealand’s first (and so far only) female athlete to win a track medal at an Olympic Games, when she was third in the 800m.
When Sir Peter Snell #151 was first and John Davies #168 third in the 1964 Olympic 1500m, it was the first time two New Zealanders had won medals in the same Olympic event.
Ian Ballinger #213 won New Zealand’s first shooting Olympic medal when he won bronze in the smallbore. At 43, he was the oldest member of that Olympic team. He made the Olympic team again in 1972 and 1976.
New Zealand won its first rowing gold medal when the men’s coxed four won their event at Mexico City in 1968.
A MAGNIFICENT GOLD IN ROWING AND OUR THIRD OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL IN THE MEN’S 1500M.
The New Zealand Rowing Eight win a gutsy Gold at Munich in 1972
Bruce Biddle #261 achieved an unusual distinction when he was placed third in the cycling road race, but was not awarded a medal. Biddle had finished fourth, but was promoted to third when one rider ahead of him was disqualified for illegal use of drugs. However, the IOC would not award Biddle a medal because he had not undergone a drugs test, though he had offered to do so after the race.
Sir John Walker #380 and Dick Quax #306 strike gold and silver on the track in Montreal. Walker’s gold was in the 1500m and Quax’s silver in the 5000m.
This was the third time a New Zealander had won gold in the 1500m.
New Zealand won the men’s hockey gold medal in 1976, the only time we have won an Olympic hockey medal, and the first time the tournament was played on artificial turf.
In 1976, rowing coxswain Simon Dickie #224 became the first New Zealander to win medals at three successive Olympic Games. He coxed the four to gold in 1968 and the eight to gold in 1972, bronze in 1976.
Sailor Hugh Poole #367 was 51 when he competed in the sailing event in 1976.
THE SADNESS OF AN OLYMPIC BOYCOTT, BUT IT’S TWO FOR TODD AND TODD FOR TWO.
Sir Mark Todd #514 began his illustrious Olympic career when, riding Charisma, he won gold in the individual three-day event in Los Angeles. Todd would go on to become an eight time Olympian and win two gold and three bronze medals.
New Zealand won eight Gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, a record that still stands to this day.
Ian Ferguson #346 won three canoeing gold medals in 1984, the first New Zealander to win three golds at the same Olympic Games.
Archer Neroli Fairhall #432 captured world headlines when she became the first para athlete to compete at the Olympic Games.
Sir Russell Coutts #421 completed a prestigious double when he won the Finn class sailing gold medal and later became a winning America’s Cup skipper.
In Seoul, Paul Kingsman #457 and Anthony Mosse #478 became the first NZ Team male swimmers to win medals, following Malcolm Champion who won a medal in 1912 Stockholm as part of the Australasian team.
In 1988 Madonna Harris #523 became the first New Zealander to compete in both winter and summer Games: the gruelling 20km cross-country skiing event in Calgary and later the cycling road race in Seoul. She remains only one of two Olympians to achieve this and the only female.
OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES MEDAL WON, DANYON LOADER BECOMES A HOUSEHOLD NAME
In Albertville, Skier Annelise Coberger #585 became the first southern hemisphere competitor to win a winter Olympic medal.
Vicky Latta #634 was NZ’s first female Olympic double medallist. She won silver in Barcelona 1992 and bronze in Atlanta 1996 as a member of the NZ Team in three day eventing.
Chris Nicholson #588 became New Zealand’s second double Olympian when he competed in the cycling 100km team time trial at Barcelona. At the Albertville 1992 and Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Winter Games he was a member of the highly rated NZ speed skating team.
Only two Kiwis, Kayakers Ian Ferguson #346 and Paul Macdonald #464, have won five medals. they retired from the Olympic Games in 1992.
Gary Anderson #529 finished third in the men’s individual pursuit cycling and became the first New Zealand cyclist to be awarded an Olympic medal.
New Zealand equestrian had one of its greatest days in Atlanta when Blyth Tait #677 and Sally Clark #699 finished first and second in the individual section and the NZ Eventing Team went on to win a bronze, resulting in the most equestrian medals won at an Olympic Games for NZ. During his Olympic career, Tait would finish with a record five medals along with Mark Todd.
Danyon Loader #640 won silver for the men’s butterfly at Barcelona and took New Zealand swimming to unprecedented heights at Atlanta when he won gold in the 200m and 400m freestyle events by 0.45s and 1.03s respectively.
WE ARE PROUD TO WEAR TE MAHUTONGA IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES OPENING CEREMONY, THE WORLD MEETS DAME VALERIE ADAMS.
Rob Waddell #745 was the first New Zealand Single Sculler to win Gold, at Sydney in 2000.
Sarah Ulmer #743 capped a glittering cycling career by winning the 3000m individual pursuit gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, smashing the world record twice along the way.
Barbara Kendall #631 became the first New Zealand woman to win medals at three successive Olympic Games when she won the boardsailing bronze medal at Sydney in 2000, following her gold at Barcelona in 1992 and silver at Atlanta in 1996.
Hamish Carter #771 and Bevan Docherty #895 competed brilliantly in the triathalon to secure gold and silver on a never-to-be-forgotten day at Athens.
Caroline #898 and Georgina Evers-Swindell #899 set all sorts of records when they won the double sculls event in 2004 and 2008 at Beijing. Not only were they absolutely dominant on the water, but they became that rarity in sport – identical twins who were Olympic gold medallists.
Dame Valerie Adams #874 wins her first Olympic Gold medal at Beijing in 2008.
Nick Willis #973 continues New Zealand’s middle-distance prowess by winning silver in the 1500m.
TEENAGERS WIN OUR FIRST OLYMPIC WINTER MEDALS IN 26 YEARS AND BURLING AND TUKE TAKE GOLD.
Sarah Walker #1101 and Marc Willers #1108 represent NZ as BMX Racing débuts at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Sarah goes on to claim NZ’s first BMX medal winning silver at London in 2012.
Kayaker Lisa Carrington #1131 has become one of the NZ Team’s most dominant champions with three Olympic medals.
At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the NZ Team won 18 medals, the most it had won at any Games. These medals were won in eight sports – rugby, shooting, rowing, canoeing, cycling, athletics, sailing and golf.
Lydia Ko #1298 helped celebrate Golf’s long delayed return to the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 by winning silver.
Mahe Drysdale #896 and Dame Valerie Adams #874 completed notable medal trebles at Rio de Janeiro. Drysdale, competing in his fourth Olympic Games, won the gold medal in the single sculls, meaning he had won two golds and a bronze in that event. Adams, also in her fourth Olympic Games, won the shot put silver medal, meaning she had won two golds and a silver in that event.
Peter Burling #1006 and Blair Tuke #1221 win the Sailing 49er gold medal. This followed their silver medal effort in the same event at London in 2012.
New Zealand burst through at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games when freestyle skier Nico Porteous #1381 and snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott #1384 both won medals. They are New Zealand’s youngest Olympic medallists.