Alan Thompson

Thompson was initially a successful swimmer and rugby player. He was the hooker in the Gisborne Boys High First XV and represented the North Island rugby team at under-18 level. He took up surf lifesaving to supplement his swimming and in 1977 graduated to kayaking.

In 1978 he and his coach John Grant decided to adopt the Arthur Lydiard training methods and were so successful other leading New Zealand kayakers soon followed suit.

By 1980, the leading New Zealanders were good enough to be making the finals of major events. The Moscow Olympic Games that year were decimated by the American-led boycott, but the kayakers did not follow the rest of the New Zealand team and provided three of the four athletes who competed at the Games.

At Moscow, Thompson and Geoff Walker made the K2 1000 final.

By 1984, the New Zealanders were a major force in world kayaking, and the Los Angeles Olympic Games that year were a gold medal feast for the New Zealanders, who won the K1 500 and 1000, the K2 500 and the K4 1000. Thompson won the K1 1000 convincingly, beating silver medallist Milan Janic of Yugoslavia by more than a second, and was part of a superb K4 combination.

“Our K4 team - Ferguson, MacDonald, Grant Bramwell and me - was a very special combination. Even though kayaking technology has moved on light years since 1984, the times we recorded back then would have got us into many major finals for years afterwards,” said Thompson.

Thompson was hopeful of grabbing another Olympic medal at Seoul in 1988, but raced conservatively and finished sixth in the K1 1000.