- New Zealand at the Olympics
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New Zealand at the Olympic Games 
Flag of New Zealand – Flag bearersIOC code NZL NOC New Zealand Olympic Committee Website www.olympic.org.nz Olympic history Summer Games 1908* • 1912* • 1920 • 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 • 2004 • 2008 • 2012 *with Australia as Australasia
Winter Games 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1994 • 1998 • 2002 • 2006 • 2010 New Zealand first participated at the Olympic Games in 1908, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then. For their first two Games in 1908 and 1912, New Zealand competed with Australia in a combined Australasia team. New Zealand first sent an independent team in 1920.
New Zealand's participation in the 1976 Games was controversial, and led to a boycott of the Games by most African countries, who protested against sporting contacts between the All Blacks and apartheid South Africa.
New Zealand has also participated in most Winter Olympic Games since 1952, missing only the 1956 and 1964 Games.
New Zealand athletes have won a total of 86 medals at the Summer Games. The most successful sport is athletics. New Zealand has only won a single medal at the Winter Games, but the silver medal won by Annelise Coberger in alpine skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics was the first medal won at the Winter Games by a Southern Hemisphere nation.
The 87 medals won by New Zealand put New Zealand at Number 36 on the All-time Olympic Games medal count for total number of medals and Number 33 when weighted by medal type.
Contents
National Olympic Committee
The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) is the National Olympic Committee for New Zealand. The NZOC was founded in 1911, and recognized by the IOC in 1919.
Participation
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 Australasian teams in 1908 and 1912. Since the advent of international jet air travel in the 1950s, and the greater number of Olympic sports, the size of New Zealand Olympic teams has increased substantially.
New Zealand, as with other Southern Hemisphere countries, has 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 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne in 1956 and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000.
As a temperate country New Zealand does not generally experience the severe winters, especially to low levels, common in many countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Consequently, a smaller proportion of New Zealanders experience winter sports (and learn to ski or skate) than the residents of some regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The same applies to many other Southern Hemisphere countries. New Zealand did not send their first Winter Olympic team until 1952. 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.
As of 20 November 2011 1111 competitors have represented New Zealand at the Olympic Games.[1] Harry Kerr is considered the first Kiwi Olympian and Adrian Blincoe the 1000th.[1] As at 11 June 2009 of the 1111 Olympians to that date 114 were deceased and the whereabouts of 21 were unknown.[1] By 25 June 2009 only 9 Olympians had not been located.[2] There are no living Kiwi Olympians from before the 1948 Olympics in London.[1]
Medal tables
See also: All-time Olympic Games medal countMedals by Summer Games
Games Gold Silver Bronze Total 1908 London as part of 
Australasia (ANZ)1912 Stockholm as part of Australasia (ANZ)1920 Antwerp 0 0 1 1 1924 Paris 0 0 1 1 1928 Amsterdam 1 0 0 1 1932 Los Angeles 0 1 0 1 1936 Berlin 1 0 0 1 1948 London 0 0 0 0 1952 Helsinki 1 0 2 3 1956 Melbourne/Stockholm 2 0 0 2 1960 Rome 2 0 1 3 1964 Tokyo 3 0 2 5 1968 Mexico City 1 0 2 3 1972 Munich 1 1 1 3 1976 Montreal 2 1 1 4 1980 Moscow 0 0 0 0 1984 Los Angeles 8 1 2 11 1988 Seoul 3 2 8 13 1992 Barcelona 1 4 5 10 1996 Atlanta 3 2 1 6 2000 Sydney 1 0 3 4 2004 Athens 3 2 0 5 2008 Beijing 3 2 4 9 Total (NZ) 36 16 34 86 Total (ANZ) 3 4 4 11 The total (NZ) does not include the medals won by New Zealanders as part of the combined Australasia team (ANZ) at the 1908 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics:
- bronze medal won by Harry Kerr in Men's 3500 metre walk in athletics (1908)
- gold medal won by Malcolm Champion as a member of the 4×200 metre freestyle team in swimming (1912)
- bronze medal won by Tony Wilding in indoor singles in tennis (1912)
Medals by Winter Games
Games Gold Silver Bronze Total 1952 Oslo 0 0 0 0 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo did not participate 1960 Squaw Valley 0 0 0 0 1964 Innsbruck did not participate 1968 Grenoble 0 0 0 0 1972 Sapporo 0 0 0 0 1976 Innsbruck 0 0 0 0 1980 Lake Placid 0 0 0 0 1984 Sarajevo 0 0 0 0 1988 Calgary 0 0 0 0 1992 Albertville 0 1 0 1 1994 Lillehammer 0 0 0 0 1998 Nagano 0 0 0 0 2002 Salt Lake City 0 0 0 0 2006 Turin 0 0 0 0 2010 Vancouver 0 0 0 0 Total 0 1 0 1 Medals by sport
Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total Athletics 9 2 8 19 Sailing 7 4 5 16 Rowing 6 2 8 16 Canoeing 5 2 1 8 Equestrian 3 2 4 9 Swimming 2 1 3 6 Cycling 1 1 2 4 Boxing 1 1 1 3 Triathlon 1 1 1 3 Field hockey 1 0 0 1 Alpine skiing 0 1 0 1 Shooting 0 0 1 1 Total 36 17 34 87 See also
- New Zealand Olympic medallists
- Category:Olympic competitors for New Zealand
- New Zealand Olympic Committee
- New Zealand at the Paralympics
References
- "Olympic Medal Winners". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
- "New Zealand Olympic Committee". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/noc/noc_uk.asp?noc_initials=NZL. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
- Athletics in the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand has a paragraph on each Olympiad and Empire Games to 1964
- ^ a b c d Leggat, David (11 June 2009). "21 Kiwi Olympians fail to register". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/olympic-games/news/article.cfm?c_id=502&objectid=10577732. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
- ^ New Zealand Olympic Committee: 1111 Olympians Honoured this Week
External links
- The Olympics (NZHistory.net.nz)
- The Joseph Romanos list of our best Olympians
- Medal Count for NZ at DatabaseOlympics.com (total of 78 not complete)
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