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Gary Hurring - Source: ONE News -
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Almost 100 athletes selected to attend the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which New Zealand boycotted, have gathered in Wellington to remember the games they missed out on.
Champion swimmer turned champion swim coach Gary Hurring was widely considered the favourite to win gold at Moscow, but he never got the chance.
"I can remember putting a whole lot of work and effort into buildup for those Olympics and being really devastated when I heard that we weren't sending a team."
After the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, the United States and 64 other countries boycotted the games.
Although our Olympic team had been finalised, New Zealand opted to join the US-led boycott.
Of the 99 New Zealand athletes who were selected, 34 never had the chance to compete in another Olympics.
"For almost three years I completely stopped swimming. I worked so hard for that point to get to those Olympics I was quite devastated," said Hurring.
Swimmer Mel Jones was also selected in 1980 and didn't go, and tonight's event will be particularly emotional for her, for another reason.
Her future husband, the late Geoff Walker, was one of four Kiwi athletes who did go to the games, defying the ban to compete in the kayaking.
"It was always a bit of a standing joke between us that he got one over me," Jones said.
Walker ignored the massive pressure to boycott, striding into the Olympic stadium with three other independent athletes carrying a black flag.
He and fellow kayakers Ian Ferguson and Alan Thompson, along with pentathlete Brian Newth, headed to the games without any government funding. None won medals.
