New Zealand (NZL)

New Zealand was first represented at the 1908 Olympic Games. In that year it formed a combined team with Australia as Australasia. One New Zealander competitor, Harry Kerr, a walker, won a bronze in the 3,500 metre walk. In 1912, three New Zealanders competed with Australasia, Malcolm Champion winning a swimming gold with the freestyle relay team. Finally, in 1920 at Antwerp, New Zealand took part in the Olympic Games as a separate nation, and it has never missed an Olympic Games since. New Zealand competed at its first Olympic Winter Games in 1952 at Oslo. It missed the Winter Games of 1956 and 1964, but has competed at all the others since 1952. New Zealand has had its greatest success in track & field with several of its middle-distance runners being Olympic champions. Its top Olympian, however, is canoeist Ian Ferguson, who won four gold medals and a silver. In all, New Zealand has won 120 Olympic medals, 46 of them gold. In 1992, Annelise Coberger won New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic medal, also the first winter medal for a Southern Hemisphere country.

In 1950 the Olympic Committee of New Zealand was awarded with the Olympic Cup.