By Joseph Romanos
It’s hardly surprising New Zealand didn’t win too many medals in the early years of the Olympics – we sent very few representatives. Sending an athlete to the Olympics on the other side of the world in the early 20th century was a considerable undertaking requiring precious funds and a formidable ocean journey.
When aeroplane travel arrived, in time for New Zealand’s team to the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, the trip over wasn’t quite as daunting.
As the years have rolled by, more sports and events have been added to the Olympic calendar. That has tended to increase the size of the New Zealand team. Other factors have been the huge increase in the number of women competing at the Olympics and the advent of ever more team sports – rugby sevens in Rio de Janeiro is the latest addition.
Our early competitors performed above themselves. New Zealanders first competed at the Olympics in London in 1908 when three men – Henry Murray, Harry Kerr and Albert Rowland – helped form the Australasian team. Kerr won a bronze medal in the 3500m track walk and we were already among the medals.
In 1912, we had three more competitors competing under the Australasian banner and two of them, swimmer Malcolm Champion and tennis player Anthony Wilding, won medals. Champion was the first New Zealand gold medallist.
So by the start of World War I, New Zealand had fielded six Olympic competitors and won three medals, a wonderful success ratio.
From 1920, New Zealand competed under its own flag. The teams were small until 1948. Sometimes they were bolstered by an England-based athlete, which was an advantage. It was surely no coincidence that Arthur Porritt (100m sprint bronze, Paris, 1924) and Jack Lovelock (1500m gold, Berlin, 1936) won medals after having to travel only short distances from their England base.
The 1932 Los Angeles Olympics were affected by The Depression and many countries cut back the size of their teams. Oddly, New Zealand had 21 competitors in Los Angeles, our biggest team until 1956.
The travails of the hardy team of seven in 1948 illustrate the problems with the big ocean voyage. Doug Harris, the 800m runner, was okay – he was living in England. But cyclist Nick Carter tried to train on the journey over on a sort of exercycle, even if it did tip over quite often on the rough seas. Backstroke swimmer Ngaire Lane would lie in the ship “pool” on her back, but the pool was hardly any longer than her so there was no opportunity to swim. Weightlifter Maurice Crow couldn’t train effectively because the rolling ship prevented him from lifting properly. Boxer Bobby Goslin couldn’t really spar at all, though sometimes Carter bravely donned some gloves to try to help. The two runners also struggled. Distance man Harold Nelson tried to run around and around the decks, but it was no sort of training really, and hurdler Dutch Holland would have enough room to place one hurdle on the deck and would attempt to stride over it, while trying to contend with the roll of the boat.
In 1952, the team of 15, headed by long jumper Yvette Williams, set out by air for Helsinki. It was a torturous journey – the sea plane from Wellington to Sydney with a refuelling stop at Norfolk Island, and then stops all the way to Europe. But even four days in the air was quicker than six weeks at sea.
When the Olympics came to Melbourne in 1956, it was an opportunity to give more New Zealanders a chance to compete at the highest level. Strangely, deserving athletes such as Bill Baillie and Roy Williams were still omitted, but the team of 54 was New Zealand’s biggest till then.
Until the end of the 1970s, New Zealand’s Olympic teams would be photographed on the steps of the Auckland Museum. It was the traditional team photo, with competitors in their team uniform. That photograph has since become impossible because so many of our athletes compete overseas. Some, such as those based at American colleges, don’t even live in New Zealand. Others spend vast segments of the year on the international circuit.
The team now only comes together at the games venue, and it is always one of the challenges of the team management to mould the large group into a “team” in the true sense of the word. Possibly because they come from such a small country, that has never really been a problem for New Zealanders. They seem to bond quickly and revel in each other’s successes.
In 1980, New Zealand named a team of 99 for the Moscow Olympics, but only four competed – three canoeists and modern pentathlete Brian Newth. The rest were caught up in the American-led Olympic boycott.
By the 1980s and 90s, New Zealand’s teams were much bigger, with hockey teams (often men and women), large rowing contingents and a good smattering of sailors.
Not surprisingly, New Zealand sent its biggest Olympic team, 149, to Sydney in 2000, even if the medal haul was disappointingly low at four.
Since then, though New Zealand has entered a golden period, with an ever increasing number of medals spread over a wider variety of sports. The size of our teams has grown too – 149 in Athens, 2004; 184 in Beijing, 2008; and again in London 2012. It is expected the New Zealand team in Rio will be 199, give or take one or two late additions or withdrawals.
There are no basketball teams this time, but men’s and women’s basketballers lifted the number of competitors in 2000 and 2004. Counterbalancing that, New Zealand is fielding its largest rowing squad and also rugby sevens men’s and women’s teams.