New Zealand Olympic medallists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

New Zealand Olympic medallists have built up a fine sporting reputation for their small country which has only a fifth of the population of greater New York city. The international media has often reported that New Zealand punches well above its weight in Olympic Games competition. Being located in the remote South Pacific, New Zealanders needed to endure long sea voyages to attend the early Olympics. It wasn’t until the VII Olympiad in 1920 that New Zealand sent its first team, comprising two runners, a rower, and a 15-year-old girl swimmer. Prior to that however, three New Zealanders had won medals competing for an Australasian team.

Over the years, teams from Southern Hemisphere countries have had the disadvantage of needing to peak to compete in summer sports which are held during their winter months. Only two Olympics have ever been held in the Southern Hemisphere, the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne in 1956 and the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney in 2000.

New Zealand is a temperate country, without severe winters experienced by many countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Consequently, only a very small proportion of young New Zealanders ever experience winter sports involving snow or ice, or ever learn to ski or skate, and the same applies to many other Southern Hemisphere countries as well. In 1992, Annelise Coberger of New Zealand became the first person from the Southern Hemisphere to win a medal at the Winter Olympics when she won silver in the slalom at Albertville in France. Her medal is included in the list below.

There has always been great rivalry between New Zealand and Australian Olympians, and some gentle ribbing from the media on both sides of the Tasman Sea. In 1984, some Australian media outlets poked fun at the Kiwi gold medallists, saying they had been sitting down on the job at the Los Angeles games where they were successful in canoeing, equestrian, rowing and sailing. The New Zealand media simply retaliated by pointing out that New Zealand had finished 8th on the final medals table, and Australia only 14th. However, this and 1976, when Australia failed to win a gold medal, were the only years where New Zealand finished higher than Australia.

The following table lists the total medals won by New Zealanders through the end of the Athens games.

Gold Silver Bronze Total
34 15 32 81

[edit] Gold

[edit] Silver

  • 2004 Athens
  • 1996 Atlanta
    • Sally Clark, riding Squirrel Hill, equestrian, individual mixed eventing.
    • Barbara Kendall, sailing, women’s board, Mistral.
  • 1992 Barcelona
    • Andrew Nicholson riding Spinning Rhombu, Victoria Latta riding Chief, Blyth Tait riding Messiah and Mark Todd riding Welton Greylag, equestrian, mixed team eventing.
    • Leslie Egnot and Jan Shearer, sailing, women’s double-handed dinghy, 470.
    • Don Cowie and Rod Davis, sailing, two-person keelboat open, Star.
    • Danyon Loader, swimming, men’s 200 m butterfly.
  • 1992 Winter Olympics, Albertville, France
    • Annelise Coberger, slalom.
  • 1988 Seoul
    • Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, double kayak, K2 1000 m flatwater.
    • Chris Timms and Rex Sellers, sailing, mixed open multihull, Tornado.
  • 1984 Los Angeles
    • Kevin Barry, boxing, 75-81 kg light-heavyweight.
  • 1980 Moscow
    • New Zealand's theam was only four strong, due to a boycott
  • 1976 Montreal
    • Dick Quax, athletics, 5000 m.
  • 1972 Munich
    • Dick Tonks, D Storey, R Collinge and N Mills, rowing, coxless fours.
  • 1932 Los Angeles
    • Robert Stiles and Fred Thompson, rowing, pairs.

[edit] Bronze

  • 2000 Sydney
    • Mark Todd riding Eyespy 11, equestrian, individual mixed eventing.
    • Barbara Kendall, sailing, women’s Mistral board.
    • Aaron McIntosh, sailing, men’s Mistral board.
  • 1996 Atlanta
    • Andrew Nicholson riding Jagermeister 11, Vaughn Jefferis riding Bounce, Blyth Tait riding Chesterfield and Vicki Latta riding Broadcast News, equestrian, mixed team eventing.
  • 1992 Barcelona
    • Lorraine Moller, athletics, women’s marathon.
    • David Tua, boxing, 81-91kg heavyweight.
    • Gary Anderson, track cycling, men’s individual pursuit.
    • Blyth Tait riding Messiah, equestrian, individual mixed eventing.
    • Craig Monk, sailing, men’s single-handed dinghy, Finn.
  • 1988 Seoul
    • Paul MacDonald, K-1 500 m, flatwater.
    • Mark Todd riding Charisma, Margaret Knighton riding Enterprise, Andrew Bennie riding Grayshott and Tinks Pottinger riding Volunteer, equestrian, mixed team eventing.
    • George Keys, Ian Wright, Greg Johnston, Chris White and Andrew Bird (cox), rowing, men’s coxed fours.
    • Lynley Hannen and Nicola Payne, rowing, women’s coxless pairs.
    • Eric Verdonk, rowing, men’s single sculls.
    • John Cutler, sailing, men’s single-handed dinghy, Finn.
    • Paul Kingsman, swimming, men’s 200 m backstroke.
    • Anthony Mosse, swimming, men’s 200 m butterfly.
  • 1984 Los Angeles
    • Kevin Lawton, Don Symon, Barrie Mabbott, Ross Tong and Brett Hollister (cox), rowing, men’s coxed fours.
    • Bruce Kendall, sailing, men’s windglider board.
  • 1980 Moscow
    • New Zealand's team was only four strong, due to a boycott.
  • 1976 Montreal
    • Tony Hurt, Alex McLean, Ivan Sutherland, Trevor Coker, Peter Dignan, Lindsay Wilson, Athol Earl, Dave Rodger and Simon Dickie (cox), rowing, eights.
  • 1972 Munich
    • Bruce Biddle, cycling, 182 km road race.
    • Rod Dixon, athletics, 1500 m track.
  • 1968 Mexico
    • Ian Ballinger, shooting, smallbore rifle.
    • Mike Ryan, athletics, marathon.
  • 1964 Tokyo
    • Marise Chamberlain, athletics, 800 m track.
    • John Davies, athletics, 1500 m track.
  • 1960 Rome
    • Barry Magee, athletics, marathon.
  • 1952 Helsinki
    • John Holland, athletics, 400 m hurdles.
    • Jean Stewart, swimming, women's 100 m backstroke.
  • 1924 Paris
  • 1920 Antwerp (first games an official New Zealand team attended)
    • Darcy Hadfield, rowing, single sculls.
  • 1912 Stockholm
  • 1908 London
    • Harry Kerr, athletics, 3500 m walk, member of Australasian team.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../n/e/w/New_Zealand_Olympic_medallists_66e4.html"
In other languages