Paris 2024

In 2024, Paris became the second city (after London) to host 3 Olympic Games. New Zealand never attended the first, in 1900, and sent a tiny team of 4 to the second, in 1924. That was the Olympics famous for the “Chariots of Fire” 100m sprint race, in which New Zealander Arthur Porritt won a surprise bronze medal.

New Zealand was no bit-part player in the third Paris Olympics, winning 20 medals, including 10 golds, and finishing 11th on the medal table, an incredible effort for such a small and geographically isolated country.

There were some superb performances by the New Zealand men, but it was the women who really stepped up in Paris. They provided a succession of indelible memories and brought home most of the precious metals.

Canoe sprint star Lisa Carrington, or Dame Lisa as she’s been since 2022, added another 3 golds to her fabulous Olympic collection, leading the K4 team (also including Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan) to a thrilling fightback over the last 60 metres for gold, teaming with Hoskin for a one-sided win in the K2 500 and dominating the blue riband K1 500.

In any other Olympics, Ellesse Andrews’ performance in winning 2 gold medals and a silver in the velodrome would have hogged the New Zealand headlines. Andrews, daughter of 1990 Commonwealth Games medallist Jon Andrews, won gold in the keirin and the sprint, and silver as part of the women’s sprint relay team (Andrews, Rebecca Petch and Shaane Fulton) that was denied gold only by a world record ride by Britain.