IOC code NZL 46 28 | Website www.olympic.org.nz 28 44 | |
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Medals GoldSilverBronzeTotal462844118 | ||
New Zealand first competed as an independent nation at 1920 Summer Olympics. Prior to this at the 1908 and 1912 Summer Olympics, New Zealand and Australia athletes competed together in a combined Australasia team. New Zealand has also participated in most Winter Olympic Games since 1952, missing only the 1956 and 1964 Games.
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The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) is the National Olympic Committee for New Zealand. The NZOC was founded in 1911, and recognised by the IOC in 1919.
New Zealand athletes have won a total of 118 medals in total, with all but one won at the Summer Games. The most successful sports have been rowing and athletics with 24 medals each; sailing follows closely behind with 22 medals. The sole Winter Olympics medal is the silver medal won by Annelise Coberger in alpine skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics was the first at the Winter Games by a Southern Hemisphere nation. The 118 medals won by New Zealand put New Zealand at number 34 on the all-time Olympic Games medal table for total number of medals and number 26 when weighted by medal type.
After the 2016 Summer Olympics, 1371 competitors have represented New Zealand at the Olympic Games. Harry Kerr is considered the first Kiwi Olympian and Adrian Blincoe the 1000th. As at 11 June 2009, of the 1111 Olympians to that date, 114 were deceased and the whereabouts of 21 were unknown. By 25 June 2009, only 9 Olympians had not been located. There are no living Kiwi Olympians from before the 1948 Olympics in London.
New Zealand at the Summer Games
The first person from New Zealand to perform at the Olympic Games was Victor Lindberg, who competed for the Osborne Swimming Club of Great Britain which won the Water Polo at the 1900 Summer Olympics.
Due to its location in the South Pacific and distance from the early Olympic host cities in Europe and North America, New Zealanders needed to endure long sea voyages to participate. New Zealand sent its first independent team to the VII Olympiad in 1920, comprising two runners, a rower, and a 15-year-old swimmer. Prior to 1920, three New Zealanders 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 three Olympics have ever been held in the Southern Hemisphere, the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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 at the Winter Games
New Zealand did not assemble their first Winter Olympic team until 1952. In 1988 the team included bobsleighers; the first entry in a winter sport other than alpine skiing.
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.