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New Zealand and the Olympic Games

Aotearoa New Zealand has a proud history of participation and success at Olympic Games. Find out about the history of our involvement in the summer, winter and youth Olympics as well as the Paralympics. SCIS no. 1550960.

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Violet Walrond at the 1920 Olympics

Violet Walrond at the 1920 Olympics

Swimmers pose for a photo at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, including New Zealand's first female Olympian, Violet Walrond.

Watch: The Hui speaks to top athlete preparing to represent NZ at Olympic Games

Watch: The Hui speaks to top athlete preparing to represent NZ at Olympic Games

Watch the show here.

First Olympic Games glossary in Māori and English launched

A new bilingual resource, containing more than 1000 terms and phrases across 30 Olympic Games sporting codes, has been created.

Breakdancing joins the Olympics for 2024

Breakdancing joins the Olympics for 2024

Breakdancing has been confirmed as a medal sport at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and its selection forms part of a push to lure a younger audience with new urban sporting codes. It will join s...

NZ plans to send nearly 200 competitors to Paris Olympics

NZ plans to send nearly 200 competitors to Paris Olympics

There are just 50 days to go until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and New Zealand is planning to send nearly 200 competitors to the Games. NZ Olympic Committee's Chef de Mission Nigel Avery spoke to...

Group at the first New Zealand junior and intermediate championships, Wanganui

Group at the first New Zealand junior and intermediate championships, Wanganui

Group portrait of swimmers, and others, at the first New Zealand junior and intermediate championships held at Wanganui in 1918. Shows a trophy on the right. Includes Gwitha Shand (bottom row, seco...

Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney at the Olympics, 2016

Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney at the Olympics, 2016

Since the 2000 Sydney Olympics the gender split of New Zealand competitors in the Olympic Games has been about even. This reflects the International Olympic Committee’s commitment to advancing gend...

First Special Olympics

First Special Olympics

Olympic gold medallist John Walker and special Olympian Gordon Llewellyn carry the Olympic flame at New Zealand's first Special Olympics in 1985. Held in Lower Hutt, the event attracted more than 7...

Jack Lovelock winning at Berlin Olympics

Jack Lovelock winning at Berlin Olympics

Photograph from Jack Lovelock's albums showing his victory at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Los Angeles Olympics cartoon

Los Angeles Olympics cartoon

New Zealand did extremely well at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

BARBARA KENDALL

BARBARA KENDALL

FIVE TIMES OLYMPIC BOARDSAILOR Barbara Ann Kendall OBE b.1967 As an Olympic superwoman on the water and the only NZ women to compete in five Summer Olympic Games, Barbara won a gold, silver and bro...

Olympians

Some well known and not so known New Zealand Olympians. If you recognise or know the team members who are not identified please leave a comment.

Close-up view of a blazer pocket monogram for the NZ Olympic Boxing Team to the 1960 Rome Olympics

Close-up view of a blazer pocket monogram for the NZ Olympic Boxing Team to the 1960 Rome Olympics

Photograph taken for the Evening Post newspaper of Wellington by an unidentified staff photographer. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). Physical Description: Cellulosic film negative, 6.5 x 6....

Olympic torch, Māngere, 2000

Olympic torch, Māngere, 2000

'Mad Butcher' Peter Leitch carries the Olympic torch through Māngere during its passage from the airport to the Auckland Domain, 7 June 2000. Photograph published with the article, 'Manukau Welcome...

NZ's first Olympic century - The Olympics

New Zealand celebrates 100 years of Olympics

It was in Antwerp in 1920 on 14 August that the first New Zealand Team marched into an Olympic Opening Ceremony as an independent nation, competing in black with a silver fern.

New Zealand at the Summer Olympics

Our haul of Olympic medals from our worst to our best: Part 1.

New Zealand athletes achieve best ever performance at an Olympic Games

New Zealand athletes made history at the Rio Olympic Games winning 18 medals, a 38% increase on London 2012 and four above the Olympic target.

Marise Chamberlain, Tokyo, 1964

Marise Chamberlain, Tokyo, 1964

Runner Marise Chamberlain won bronze in the 800 metres at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. She was the only New Zealand woman to win an Olympic medal in a running event until 1992, when Lorraine Moller won...

The New Zealand Olympic Committee

Official information about past and present New Zealand Olympic teams, games. athletes and sports.

Anne Audain and Lorraine Moller, 1982

Anne Audain and Lorraine Moller, 1982

Along with Allison Roe, Anne Audain (left) and Lorraine Moller (right) were the most successful New Zealand female distance runners to emerge in the 1970s. Here, they are pictured after the 3,000 m...

NZ's Olympic pioneers (1908)

NZ's Olympic pioneers (1908)

New Zealand missed the first three modern Olympic Games in Athens (1896), Paris (1900) and St Louis (1904). In the 1908 Games in London, New Zealanders competed as part of an 'Australasian' team.

New Zealand's Olympic story

New Zealand’s Olympic story began in London in 1908, when three athletes competed as part of an ‘Australasian’ team. Incudes 16 NZ Olympic stories.

Some of our finest New Zealand Olympic wins

A quick look at New Zealand's finest Olympic moments.

New Zealand win men's double sculls at the London 2012 Olympics

Watch the thrilling New Zealand win the Men's Double Sculls Final during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Our first Olympians

This School Journal article provides information on some of New Zealand’s earliest Olympians.

Paralympics New Zealand

Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) is the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) for New Zealand. Provides news profiles and information on New Zealand Paralympic athletes.

New Zealand at the Winter Olympic Games

New Zealand made its first appearance at the Winter Olympic Games in Oslo, Norway in 1952.

Yvette Williams

Yvette Williams was the first New Zealand woman to win an Olympic medal.

The first Olympic gold for New Zealand

For the first time in history an Olympic championship has been won by a Now Zealander.

Lisa Carrington after winning gold in Rio.

Lisa Carrington after winning gold in Rio.

New Zealand's world champion kayaker Lisa Carrington has won back-to-back Olympic gold medals on day 11 in Rio.

A world record at Cooks Gardens - Roadside Stories

A world record at Cooks Gardens - Roadside Stories

Cooks Gardens in Whanganui made international headlines in January 1962, when New Zealand athlete Peter Snell ran a mile in 3 minutes and 54.4 seconds, setting a new world record. A protégé of the ...

Sound clip: Yvette Williams at the 1952 Olympics

Yvette Williams describes winning the longjump (then known as broad jump) at the 1952 Olympics, Helsinki.

Lisa Carrington

Lisa Carrington shares her path to double Olympic gold.

Kiwi Olympic athletes

Search here for information on New Zealand Olympic athletes and more.iuytrewq

New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame inductees

Search our list of inductees for famous New Zealand sports people.

Mark Todd on Charisma, Seoul, 1988

Mark Todd on Charisma, Seoul, 1988

Mark Todd and his horse Charisma win gold in the three-day individual event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Todd and Charisma had won the same event at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Todd represented N...

The black singlet

1952-64 was a golden era of NZ Olympic sports.

For a small country from the edge of the world, achievements on the Olympic stage are badges — silver fern-on-black — of national pride.

Arthur Lydiard

Arthur Lydiard was a marathon runner and athletics coach, whose most notable trainees included national, Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions.

The Evers-Swindell twins' Beijing victory, 2008

The Evers-Swindell twins' Beijing victory, 2008

Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell won the 2,000-metre double sculls at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in a finish so close that the television commentators were confused over the result. This was the...

Duncan Laing and Danyon Loader, Atlanta, 1996

Duncan Laing and Danyon Loader, Atlanta, 1996

Swimmer Danyon Loader (right) poses with his coach Duncan Laing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Loader won gold in both the 200-metre and the 400-metre freestyle. He had previously won a silver medal...

Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty, Athens, 2004

Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty, Athens, 2004

Hamish Carter (centre) leads fellow New Zealander Bevan Docherty (right) during the running leg of the triathlon at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Carter ran away from Docherty to win the race, while S...

Sarah Ulmer

Sarah Ulmer rides a victory lap after winning the 3000-metre individual pursuit race at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. It was New Zealand's first Olympic cycling gold medal. Sarah came from a legen...

Olympic victory

Olympic victory

Auckland teen breaks 123 weightlifting records

Auckland teen breaks 123 weightlifting records

Kanah Andrews-Nahu is still at high school, but she's already breaking weightlifting records. The 17-year-old has just been picked to represent New Zealand at the Youth Olympics. She spoke to John ...

Weekly Review No. 350 - New Zealanders for the Olympics

Weekly Review No. 350 - New Zealanders for the Olympics

This National Film Unit magazine film meets the NZ team for the 1948 London Olympics as they prepare to depart by boat (accompanied by a manager, and a chaperone for the sole female competitor). Ea...

Neroli Fairhall

Neroli Fairhall

Neroli Fairhall is shown here with fellow members of the New Zealand team at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Fairhall made history as the first paraplegic athlete to compete ...

Miniature stamp sheet celebrating Natalie Rooney's silver medal at the Rio Olympics for women's trap shooting

Miniature stamp sheet celebrating Natalie Rooney's silver medal at the Rio Olympics for women's trap shooting

For every medal won at the Rio Olympics, New Zealand Post produced a unique stamp to celebrate.. The stamps were produce on-the-fly to recognise our athletes' achievements on the world stage in Rio...

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott

New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott celebrates after winning a bronze medal in the women's big air snowboarding competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. In Beijing in 2022, she won si...

Annelise Coberger

Annelise Coberger

Skiing champion Annelise Coberger was the first New Zealander to achieve international renown in the sport. At the height of her career she won a silver medal in the slalom event at the 1992 Winter...

Beatrice Faumuina, Manchester, 2002

Beatrice Faumuina, Manchester, 2002

Discus thrower Beatrice Faumuina (‘Queen Bea’) came to prominence when she won silver at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia. She went on to win gold at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur ...

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