The Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, in 1976

This was the second of seven Olympic Games Keith has attended. Here is his story.

Travelling to Canada in 1976 was part of an incredible journey for me that year. You see, not only did I fly to broadcast at the Olympics, but afterwards instead of returning straight home I carried on to South Africa for Television New Zealand and joined the reporting of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby tour of South Africa. In all I was away from my home, which was by then in Lower Hutt, New Zealand for 14 weeks. Those two sporting events were inextricably joined by controversial circumstances and I believe I was the only reporter in the world to have seen the effects each had on the other. And when I got home and thought about the whole experience I realised it had changed me totally as a person.

On arrival in Montreal for the Olympics the first thing I noticed for the first time the adoption of the full-card round-the-neck identification security system for everyone. Four years had passed since the Munich Olympic terrorist disaster so therefore much closer scrutiny of all people was now deemed necessary. At Munich we had a card which we wore on our lapels but I remember that some skylarking German staff even put an ID card around a little dog's neck. There was no sign of that lightness of attitude in Montreal.

Our TVNZ team in Montreal was 20 strong. Unlike Munich we were formally divided into radio and TV crews. My job in Montreal was solely in the main stadium doing Opening and Closing Ceremony for TV. That was followed by Track and Field commentaries.

My co-commentator in the main stadium was the former Olympic 1500 metre bronze medallist John Davies. He and I had worked together in Christchurch a couple of years before at the Commonwealth Games. Davies combined a deep love of his sport with a great dignity, plus he had an innate early understanding of the requirements of broadcasting. Over the years we had a lot of fun together and it was devastating to many others and myself when he passed away, at a far too young age, in 2003. By then he was Chairman of the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

Before the opening day of the 1976 Games I had spent many weeks trawling through newspapers at the library and at the British High commission reading room in Wellington. I was looking for notes and clippings about the countries which were to compete at the games. Of course there was no such thing as 'google' in those far off days! My ambition in the research was to be able to say something meaningful at the opening ceremony about each nation as they marched in. In Montreal any countries that I had nothing about I phoned up in their Olympic village office or went to see.

But as we walked around the Olympic Village (the media were allowed to then) both John Davies and I repeatedly met resentment or indifference towards us being New Zealanders. This came especially from those countries of black Africa. We would go into an office and ask our regular opening ceremony questions; "How many athletes in your team please? What are you wearing for the march past? Who is carrying your flag?" When we identified ourselves as being New Zealanders there was often no information suddenly available.

In the end we realised that the antipathy towards New Zealanders was as the result of the All Black rugby team having just commenced its 24-match tour of South Africa.

As a protest against any sports contact with South Africa, the country of Tanzania did not travel to Montreal. They simply pulled out of all competition. That was going to deny the Games of a repeat of the classic 1500 metre clash we had enjoyed at Christchurch at the Commonwealth Games between our John Walker and Tanzania's world record holder Filbert Bayi.

The no-show of Tanzania then led to meetings in Montreal by a number of other countries, mostly African. There was a feeling that they should stand in solidarity with the blacks of South Africa. That country had been banned from the Olympics since 1968 and it was still under the yoke of apartheid. In the end we traipsed along to a press conference and heard Mr Jean-Claude Ganga of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa call for a full boycott of the Olympics in protest at the All Blacks tour. We wondered what his call really meant. Did he have any clout?

This took place on the eve of the opening ceremony. The next morning as I tried to organise my precious notes into order for the ceremony news started to come through that, in their droves, countries were pulling out in support of Tanzania and Mr Ganga's call.

"So you New Zealanders are the guys who are causing the trouble?" said a Canadian in a shop that day to me when he asked what country I was from. It had got to the point where I had earlier called myself an Australian reporter when I rang to some countries offices seeking information. Those were difficult days I can tell you.

In the end John and I went to our commentary boxes at the stadium not knowing which teams were still going to compete and which were joining the boycott.

As we readied ourselves for the opening ceremony commentary there was a further significant problem. The pictures from the stadium were flashing out across the world but the commentary circuits were not. John and I sat there getting increasingly agitated. On a red telephone on the desk I communicated with the TVNZ studio and asked them, "What the hell is going on. Why aren't we 'on'?"

The grand ceremony started and it was truly superb. Dancers danced, trumpeters played and the culture of the French-Canadians was displayed to the world. Davies and I just sat there in glum silence, muted by the sound mix failure at our commentary position. Was it someone in the local TV crew also protesting at what New Zealand's rugby team was doing? We didn't know, except that TV New Zealand's commentary was, in the end, the only one not working.

Instead I took my precious notes and called them through down the red phone to where Phillip Leishman was hosting the TV event out of a studio in Wellington. He listened to me through an ear-phone hook-up. In typical professional style he then effortlessly broadcast all the colour of the Opening Ceremony to the New Zealand audience. Quite rightly he made it sound as though it was he who had done all the weeks of research. No disrespect to Phil who is a good mate, and who did an excellent job, but I was not a happy chap.

The teams started to march in and we noted that many of the African states were not there. In all 21 boycotted, plus Iraq and Guyana.

When at last a sound technician ran down the aisle and gave John and I the thumbs-up to start talking, Phillip stopped gaining all the glory in New Zealand while in Montreal at the stadium we were left with the crumbs. I remember the first nation John and I called was "Poland." Never was I more pleased to see Polish people! We hadn't even had the honour of saying "here comes New Zealand, etc," as our team came in.

The whole day turned out to be a bloody shambles, what with the New Zealand role in the boycott and the cocked-up sound gear. But there was one more thing to mess up the day.

I had kept my cool as best I could during the whole drama at the stadium. It is best to do that when things are crashing in disrepair around you. But when at last I made it back to my hotel room and closed the door and was on my own, I suddenly unleashed all of my frustrations. I saw all of my preparation clippings and stuff lying there, so lovingly kept for weeks back home and then transported so carefully to Canada, not to mention being worked on to a late hour the night before.

In a flash of rage I lashed out with a kick at the table they were all lying on. Unfortunately for me I misplaced my aim and stubbed my toe badly on the table leg. The result was I had a limp for the next three or four days. It was not one of my best Olympic times.

Check in tomorrow for part two of Keith's story