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Feb 27, 2008
 New Zealand failed to be represented at the first three Olympiads in Athens 1896, Paris 1900 and St Louis 1904 due to costs and travel distances.

For the 1908 Games in London and the 1912 Games in Stockholm, New Zealand athletes teamed up with Australian competitors to compete under the banner 'Australasia'. The first Olympic medal ever won by a New Zealander was as an 'Australasian' representative. Harry Kerr won a bronze medal for the 3500 metres walk in 1908.

New Zealand's first Olympic gold medallist was swimmer Malcolm Champion. Champion was a member of the Australasian 4x200 metre relay team which won the gold at Stockholm in 1912, breaking the world record.

Another New Zealander at Stockholm, Anthony Wilding from Canterbury, won bronze in the men's tennis singles.

The 1920s

New Zealand sent its first official Olympic team to the 7th Olympiad in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920 but it was made up of only four competitors. All four performed remarkably well. Darcy Hadfield won the bronze medal for the single sculls while Harry Wilson and George Davidson came 4th and 5th respectively in the 110 metres hurdles and the 100 metre sprint.

New Zealand's first woman Olympian was 15 year old Violet Walrond. She was placed 5th in the 100 metres freestyle but she could not compete in the final due to illness.

The achievements of Wilding, Hadfield and Champion in the early part of the 20th Century have been echoed by other New Zealanders in successive Olympic arenas.

In 1924 New Zealand won its first Olympic track medal. Arthur Porritt took the bronze in the 100 metre sprint at the Paris Olympics. This is considered a classic 100 metre race. It was won by Englishman Harold Abrahams and was the race featured in the movie 'Chariots of Fire'.

New Zealand's first individual gold medal was won in 1928. Boxer Ted Morgan won gold in the welterweight class at the Amsterdam Olympics. Morgan took first prize as a virtual unknown and fought under the handicap of a dislocated little finger.

The 1930s

New Zealanders Fred Thompson and Bob Stiles won a silver medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, competing in the pair-oared rowing.

One of New Zealand's most memorable medal wins was at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Jack Lovelock won the gold in 1500 metre "glamour event". Lovelock set a new world record time of 3 minutes 47.8 seconds and described his win as "the most perfectly executed race of my career".

The 1950s

Yvette Williams was the first New Zealand woman to win an Olympic gold medal, winning the long jump at the Helsinki Games in 1952. John Holland won a bronze in the 400 metres hurdles while swimmer Jean Stewart won bronze in the 100 metres backstroke.

In Melbourne in 1956 Norman Read won the 50k walk by over two minutes. Peter Mander and Jack Cropp won New Zealand's first yachting gold in the 12 metre Sharpie class. Arthur Lydiard didn't win a medal at Melbourne, finishing 12th in the marathon, but would go on to become one of the world's most successful athletic coaches.

The 1960s

One of Lydiard's most famous pupils was Peter Snell. Snell arrived at the Rome Olympics in 1960 as a complete unkown but in the 800 metres he won the gold in a record time of 1 minute 46.3 seconds. Snell successfully defended his 800 metre title in Tokyo four years later and went on to take gold in the 1500 metres as well.

One of New Zealand's most memorable days at an Olympic Games came at the 17th Olympiad in Rome in 1960. Murray Halberg won the gold medal in the 5000 metres within an hour of Snell's 800 metre victory. And to cap a successful athletics programme for New Zealand, Barry Magee won the marathon bronze.

Apart from Snell's double success on the track at Tokyo, Helmer Pederson and Earle Wells won gold in yachting's Flying Dutchman class while John Davies took the bronze behind Snell in the 1500 metres and Marise Chamberlain won bronze in the women's 800 metres on the track.

Rowing really came into its own for New Zealand at the 1968 Mexico Olympics when the coxed four took the gold medal. Ian Ballinger won a bronze in the smallbore rifle shooting and Mike Ryan a bronze in the marathon.

The 1970s

Four years later at Munich, the New Zealand rowing eight blitzed the powerful Americans, Russians and East Germans with an extraordinary display of power rowing. The win was seen as all the more astonishing for them being a truly amateur crew from a remote country away from the centres of world rowing. Also at the rowing the men's coxless four won a silver medal, while Rod Dixon captured a bronze in the 1500 metres on the track.

John Walker continued New Zealand's track dominance with a gold in the 1500 metres at Montreal in 1976, a Games boycotted by several African nations due to New Zealand's sporting contacts with South Africa.

In earth-shattering fashion the men's hockey team won the gold medal, beating Australia 1-0 in the final. The men's rowing eight followed the Munich gold with a bronze in 1976, while Dick Quax secured a silver medal in the 5000 metres.

The 1980s

Politics again intervened in 1980. New Zealand, along with other western nations, boycotted the Moscow Olympics in response to the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan. Some New Zealanders did compete however as individuals.

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics saw New Zealand win medals for the first time in canoeing and equestrian. Mark Todd, aboard Charisma won gold in the individual three day event.

Canoeists Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald won five gold medals between them in three events. Ferguson won gold in the K1 500 metres, teamed with MacDonald for the gold in the K2 500 and with MacDonald, Grant Bramwell and Alan Thompson for a gold in the K4 1000 metres. Thompson won the gold in the K1 1000.

Yachting produced a couple of gold medals from Russell Coutts in the Finn Class and Rex Sellars and Chris Timms in the Tornado. Bruce Kendall won the bronze in the boardsailing.

Rowing again produced the goods with the coxless four winning gold while the coxed four took the bronze.

Rounding it all off was boxer Kevin Barry who claimed the silver medal in the light heavyweight division.

At Seoul in 1988 Bruce Kendall built on his bronze at LA with the boardsailing gold. Mark Todd successfully defended his individual three day event title and the team captured the bronze.

Ferguson and MacDonald built on their medal haul claiming gold in the K2 500. They grabbed a silver in the K2 1000 and MacDonald won a bronze in the K1 500 metres.

Again rowing proved its worth as the men's coxed four, men's single scull and women's coxless pair all won bronze medals.

Paul Kingsman and Anthony Mosse won bronze medals in the pool, in the 200 metres backstroke and the 200 metres butterfly respectively while John Cutler won bronze in yachting's Finn Class, and Rex Sellars and Chris Timms a silver in the Tornado class.

The 1990s

The 1992 Olympic year kicked off in spectacular fashion for New Zealand as Annelise Coberger won this country's first Winter Olympic medal when she claimed silver in slalom skiing in Albertville.

Later that same year in Barcelona, New Zealand's sole gold medal went to Bruce's sister Barbara Kendall in women's boardsailing. Yachting secured other medals in the Star Class where Don Cowie and Rod Davis won silver, the 470s where Leslie Egnot and Jan Shearer also won silver and Craig Monk who won a bronze in the Finn.

The three day equestrian team won a silver medal as did swimmer Danyon Loader in the 200 metres butterfly. Bronze medals went to Gary Anderson in cycling's 4000 metres individual pursuit, Lorraine Moller in the marathon, David Tua in heavyweight boxing and Blyth Tait in the individual three day event.

At Atlanta in 1996, Danyon Loader stole the show for New Zealand. Loader followed his silver in Barcelona with two golds at Atlanta in the 200 and 400 metres freestyle.

In similar fashion Blyth Tait followed his silver at Barcelona with a gold in the individual three day event as New Zealand completed a one-two finish as Sally Clark took out the silver medal. The team captured the bronze.

For the fourth Games in succession a Kendall was again on the medal dais. Barbara had to settle for a silver in the 1996 boardsailing competition.

The 21st Century

There were rather slimmer pickings at the first Olympic Games of the new millennium, those held in Sydney in 2000. The country's biggest-ever team was only able to bring home four medals.

Rob Waddell totally dominated the competition in the men's single sculls to win gold, while there were bronzes for Barbara Kendall in the men's and women's Mistral, respectively, while Mark Todd brought his glittering Olympic career to an end with a bronze in the individual three-day event.

The 2004 games in Athens offered up a similar effort.

The New Zealand team came away with three gold medals and two silver.

Our triathletes performed superbly with Hamish Carter taking out the gold and Bevan Docherty the silver. Track cyclist Sarah Ulmer and double scullers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell were the other two gold medal winners, with the second silver going to Kayaker ben Fouhy in the K1 1,000 metre event.