Well, it is only 21 days until the Rio Summer Olympics of 2016 which is held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil so here is New Zealand's history at the Summer Olympics:
In 1920, New Zealand managed to compete as an independent nation after competing with Australia in the summer Olympics at both 1908 in London and 1912 in Stockholm as Australasia with New Zealand winning their only medal of the games with Darcy Clarence Hadfield taking home the bronze in Rowing, Men's single scull in Antwerp, Belgium and in 1924, just like in Antwerp, New Zealand won their only medal in the Summer Olympics with Arthur Porritt winning the bronze in Athletics/Track and Field, 100 m over in Paris, France but in 1928, New Zealand picked up its 1st gold medal at the Olympics with Ted Morgan in Boxing, men's welterweight over at Amsterdam in Holland/the Netherlands.
In 1932 when the games was held in Los Angeles, California, United States of America, New Zealand won it's only medal at the Olympic Games with Cyril Stiles & Fred Thompson taking home Silver in Rowing, Men's coxless pair & In 1936, history was made for New Zealand in Berlin, Germany as Jack Lovelock becomes the 1st Kiwi to win an Olympic gold in Athletics, Men's 1500 metres.
In 1948 (The Olympic Games was back in full swing after World War II affected the Games in both 1940 & 1944), New Zealand didn't win any gold, silver or bronze medals at the Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.
In 1952, 3 medals were won by New Zealand as Yvette Williams took home the gold in Track and Field, Women's Long Jump as well as John Holland winning bronze in Athletics, Men's 400m Hurdles as well as Jean Stewart who took home another bronze in Swimming, Women's 100m backstroke in Helsinki, Finland & in 1956, New Zealand won not 1 but 2 gold Medals so far as Norman Read won Athletics, Men's 50 km walk and Jack Cropp and Peter Mander in Sailing, Men's Sharpie 12m square Team Competition which is held in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1960, New Zealand won 2 gold medals with the great Peter Snell in Athletics, Men's 800m, Murray Halberg in Athletics, Men's 5000m and 1 bronze medal with Barry Magee in Athletics, Men's Marathon at Rome, Italy And in 1964 New Zealand won 3 Olympic gold medals & 2 bronzes as Peter Snell was able to defend his Olympic gold medal in Athletics, Men's 800m as well as winning the 1500m crown (One of Pops favourite Olympic moments) but Helmer Pedersen & Earle Wells were the other gold medalists in Sailing, Men Flying Dutchman Class as well as John Davies taking home the bronze in Athletics, Men's 1500 metres & Marise Chamberlin in Athletics, Women's 800 metres in Tokyo, Japan but in 1968, New Zealand won it's only gold medal at the Summer Olympics with Warren Cole, Ross Collinge, Dick Joyce & Dudley Storey in Rowing, Men's Coxed Fours as well as Mike Ryan secured Bronze in Athletics, Men's Marathon and Ian Ballinger also winning bronze in Shooting, Men's Small-bore Rifle at Mexico City in Mexico.
In 1972, New Zealand were able to win a single gold, silver & bronze medal each in Munich, West Germany with Tony Hurt, Wybo Veldman, Dick Joyce, John Hunter, Lindsay Wilson, Athol Earl, Trevor Coker, Gary Robertson & Simon Dickie in Rowing, Men's Eights for the Gold, Dick Tonks, Dudley Storey, Ross Collinge & Noel Mills in Rowing, Men's Coxless Fours (God Defend New Zealand was being played rather than Great Britain's national anthem that they used, God Save the Queen when the Kiwis won gold) for the Silver & Rod Dixon in Athletics, Men's 1500m & in 1976 (The games was held when African countries (With Cote D'Ivoire & Senegal were the exceptions) as well as Guyana & Iraq, withdrew after their boycott which the New Zealand rugby team toured South Africa earlier in the year), John Walker was Olympic champion in Athletics, Men's 1500m as well as the New Zealand men's field hockey team (Which consists of Paul Ackerley, Jeff Archibald, Arthur Borren, Alan Chesney, John Christensen, Greg Dayman, Tony Ineson, Barry Maister, Selwyn Maister, Trevor Manning, Alan McIntyre, Arthur Parkin, Mohan Patel & Ramesh Patel) while Dick Quax won silver in Athletics, Men's 5000m & Rowing, Men's Eights won bronze with Trevor Coker, Simon Dickie, Peter Dignan, Athol Earl, Tony Hurt, Alec McLean, Dave Rodger, Ivan Sutherland, and Lindsay Wilson over in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In 1980, New Zealand did not compete in Moscow, Soviet Union as the government of that time supported the American-led boycott but however, only 4 New Zealand athletes competed as independents under the banner of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association but in 1984 (Although the Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc countries withdrew after they also boycotted the games), New Zealand had its best Olympic Campaign in Los Angeles, California with a record 8 gold medals won along with only a single silver medal & 2 bronzes on that occasion but the gold medalists are:
Ian Ferguson in Canoeing, Men's K1 500m Kayak Singles
Alan Thompson in Canoeing, Men's K1 1,000m Kayak Singles
Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 500m Kayak Pairs (My Dad's favourite Olympic moment)
Ian Ferguson, Alan Thompson, Grant Bramwell and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K4 1000m Kayak Fours
Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition
Rex Sellers and Chris Timms in Sailing, Men's Tornado Team Competition
Shane O'Brien, Les O'Connell, Conrad Robertson, and Keith Trask in Rowing, Men's Coxless Fours
& Russell Coutts (Future America's Cup winner with Team New Zealand, Alinghi & Oracle Team USA) in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition
And of course Kevin Barry won silver in Boxing, Men's Light Heavyweight & Bruce Kendall won bronze in Sailing, Men's Windglider Individual Competition & the Men's Coxed Fours in Rowing (Consisting of Brett Hollister, Kevin Lawton, Barrie Mabbott, Don Symon & Ross Tong) and in 1988, New Zealand only won 3 gold medals in Seoul, South Korea with Bruce Kendall in Sailing, Men's Lechner Sailboard Individual Competition, Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 500 m Kayak Pairs & Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition along with 2 silvers (Won by Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 1,000 m Kayak Pairs & Rex Sellers and Chris Timms in Sailing, Men's Tornado Team Competition) & 8 bronze medals (The Bronze Medalists Are: Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K1 500 m Kayak Singles, Andrew Bennie, Margaret Knighton, Tinks Pottinger, and Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Team Competition, Eric Verdonk in Rowing, Men's Single Sculls, Andrew Bird, Greg Johnston, George Keys, Chris White, and Ian Wright in Rowing, Men's Coxed Fours, Lynley Hannen and Nicola Payne in Rowing, Women's Coxless Pairs, Paul Kingsman in Swimming, Men's 200 m Backstroke, Anthony Mosse in Swimming, Men's 200 m Butterfly & John Cutler in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition).
In 1992, New Zealand just won 1 gold medal in Barcelona, Spain with Barbara Kendall in Sailing, Women's Windglider Individual Competition but they managed to win 4 silver medals (With Danyon Loader in Swimming, Men's 200 metres butterfly, Vicki Latta, Andrew Nicholson, & Blyth Tait in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Team Competition (mixed), Leslie Egnot & Jan Shearer in Sailing, Women's 470 Team Competition & Don Cowie & Rod Davis in Sailing, Men's Star Team Competition) & 5 bronze medals (With Lorraine Moller in Athletics, Women's Marathon, David Tua in Boxing, Men's Heavyweight, Gary Anderson in Cycling, Men's 4,000m Individual Pursuit, Blyth Tait in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition (mixed) & Craig Monk in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition) but in 1996 (This was 20 years ago), New Zealand were a piece of cake by taking home 3 gold medals in Atlanta, Georgia, USA with Danyon Loader in Swimming, men's 200 metres freestyle & men's 400 metres freestyle (One of my favourite Summer Olympic moments of all time) & Blyth Tait in Equestrian, three-day event individual competition (mixed), both silver Medals with Sally Clark in Equestrian, three-day event individual competition (mixed) & Barbara Kendall in Sailing, women's Mistral individual competition & a single bronze medal with Vicki Latta, Andrew Nicholson, Blyth Tait and Vaughn Jefferies in Equestrian, three-day event team competition (mixed).
In 2000, New Zealand won it's only Olympic gold medal with Rob Waddell in Rowing, Men's Single Sculls, but took home no silver medals and won 3 bronze medals with Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition, Aaron McIntosh in Sailing, Men's Sailboard (Mistral) & Barbara Kendall in Sailing, Women's Sailboard (Mistral) & then all of a sudden in 2004 over in Athens, Greece (Which hosted the 1st ever modern Summer Olympics), New Zealand won an astonishing 3 gold medals with the Evers-Swindell twins of Caroline & Georgina in Rowing, Women's double sculls, Sarah Ulmer (Who lost to eventual gold medalist Leontin Zijlaard in the semi-final before missing out on the bronze to Yvonne McGregor in Sydney 2000) in Cycling, Women's individual pursuit & Hamish Carter in Triathlon, Men's event & 2 silvers with Bevan Docherty in Triathlon, Men's event & Ben Fouhy in Canoeing, Men's K-1 1000 m but no bronze medals being won but in 2008 when the Summer Olympics was held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, New Zealand won 3 gold medals with the Evers-Swindell's once again became Olympic Champions just like in Athens in Rowing, Women's double sculls as well as Valerie Vili in Athletics, Women's shot put & Tom Ashley in Sailing, Men's sailboard as well as winning 2 silver medals with Hayden Roulston in Cycling, Men's individual pursuit & Nick Willis, Men's 1500 m & 4 bronze medals with Mahe Drysdale in Rowing, Men's single sculls, George Bridgewater & Nathan Twaddle in Rowing, Men's coxless pair, Hayden Roulston, Jesse Sergent, Marc Ryan & Sam Bewley in Cycling, Men's team pursuit & Bevan Docherty in Triathlon, Men's triathlon.
And finally in 2012, New Zealand left London with a total of 13 medals (6 gold (Nathan Cohen & Joseph Sullivan in Rowing, Men's double sculls, Hamish Bond & Eric Murray also in Rowing, Men's pair, Mahe Drysdale also in Rowing, Men's single sculls, Jo Aleh & Olivia Powrie in Sailing, Women's 470 class, Lisa Carrington in Canoeing, Women's K-1 200m & Valerie Adams in Athletics, Women's shot put (Originally won the silver medal before her opponent Nadzeya Ostapchuk got disqualified for her positive drug test), 2 silver (Peter Burling & Blair Tuke in Sailing, 49er class & Sarah Walker in Cycling, Women's BMX), and 5 bronze (Andrew Nicholson, Jonathan Paget, Caroline Powell, Jonelle Richards & Mark Todd in Equestrian, Team eventing, Juliette Haigh & Rebecca Scown in Rowing, Women's pair, Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate, Westley Gough, Marc Ryan & Jesse Sergent in Cycling, Men's team pursuit, Peter Taylor & Storm Uru in Rowing, Men's lightweight double sculls & last but not least, Simon van Velthooven in Cycling, Men's keirin), finishing 15th in the overall medal standings. This was considered 1 of the nation's most successful Olympics, winning the 2nd-largest number of gold medals behind eight at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and tying with the 1988 Summer Olympics for the largest number of medals. 5 of these medals were awarded to the team in rowing, 3 in cycling, 2 in sailing, and 1 each in athletics, canoeing, and equestrian. Among the nation's medallists were rower Mahé Drysdale, who won Gold in the men's single sculls, and track cyclists Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, and Jesse Sergent, who managed to repeat the bronze from Beijing in men's team pursuit. New Zealand also ranked highly in medal tables adjusted for country populations, placing 4th for total medals per capita, gold medals per capita and weighted medals per capita. During the games, New Zealand achieved its 100th overall Olympic medal. The gold medal was won by kayaker Lisa Carrington in the women's K-1 200 metres. However, if the three medals won by New Zealand athletes in 1908 and in 1912 as part of Australasia are included, the 100th medal would be the silver claimed by sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke from the open skiff class.
Originally, New Zealand won five gold medals: three in rowing, one in sailing, and the last canoeing. On 13 August 2012, however, the International Olympic Committee stripped Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk of her gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroid metenolone. On 19 September 2012, silver medallist Valerie Adams was subsequently awarded and received her gold medal at a public ceremony in Auckland.
And onto this year where 2 new sports will make their debut, Golf (Which will be represented by Lydia Ko in the women's section as well as Danny Lee & son of All Black & current All Black selector Grant Fox, Ryan Fox in the men's part) & the return of Rugby under the sevens form (Although World Rugby Sevens Series Champions Fiji are favourites for the gold medal but they've got some good players such as captain Osea Kolinisau, Savaneca Rawaca, Josua Tuisova, Pio Tuwai & Samisoni Viriviri but no former NRL & NFL star Jarryd Hayne as he is missed out on selection due to his poor performances in the final World Rugby Sevens Series event at Twickenham in London) as well as Jamaican sprinter & world's fastest man Usain Bolt's (Although he has an endorsement with Pepsi owned Gatorade with world's best footballer/soccer player from Argentina, the recently retired international Lionel Messi & the world's best rugby team the All Blacks but the Coca-Cola owned Powerade is the official Olympic partner of sports drinks) last hurrah at the games since he made his successful Olympic debut in 2008 (He managed to break the world record in the 100 metres by running his shoelaces, untied!).
And finally, my Malaysian friend Sophia 'Sophie' Ong AKA The Heartbreak Kid (One of my 3 Asian friends along with her fellow countrymen Lim Chin Keong, John Coburn's partner for several years & one of Murray Gray's partners from the Philippines named Viluz) has sent me an email that she is here and she will meet me when I'm ready and free so that they can have a picnic & She already told me a couple of years ago that she has a sister named Amelia (The Nature Girl) & a younger brother named Jason (The Malaysian Architect) while I exactly knew Sophie's parents are Evelyn (Her mum because I simply cannot remember what company she works for) & Alex (Her dad who works in a shipping company who is a Star Wars fanatic) & I remember several famous Malaysian people such as badminton player Lee Chong Wei, ex Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong & Actress who is married to FIA president Jean Todt, Michelle Yeoh (Who appeared in films such as the 1997 James Bond 007 film, Tomorrow Never Dies (Starring Irishman Pierce Brosnan from the critically acclaimed TV series Remington Steele as Bond, James Bond & featuring Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives), the 2000 flick Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Appearing in the movie are Chow-Yun fat (Who appeared in movies such as Hard Boiled, the Replacement Killers (With Mira Sorvino), Anna & the King (With Jodie Foster, Bai Ling & Mr Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton) & Bulletproof Monk (With Sean William Scott, Jamie King, Karel Roden, Victoria Smurfit & the late Mako Iwamatsu) & Zhang Ziyi (Who also appeared in movies such as Rush Hour 2 (With Jackie Chan & Chris Tucker), Memoirs of a Geisha (With Yeoh, Gong Li, Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, the late Mako & of course, Mr Shang Tsung/Heihachi Mishima himself, Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) & House of Flying Daggers (With Takeshi Kaneshiro & Andy Lau), the 2007 movie Sunshine (With Cillian Murphy (From the 2005 movie Red Eye), Mr Captain America himself Chris Evans, Rose Byrne (From the movie Bad Neighbours with Pineapple Express's Seth Rogen & High School Musical's Zac Efron & Spy with Identity Thief's Melissa McCarthy & The Transporter/The Expendables's Jason Statham), Mr Uncle Bully himself Cliff Curtis & Hiroyuki Sanada (Who appeared in Rush Hour 3 with Chan, Tucker, Zhang Jingchu, Max von Sydow (From the 2015 movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Appearing in that film is Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as the evil Kylo Ren, John Boyega as Finn/FN-2187, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron as well as Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Kenny Baker as R2-D2 & of course Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker) & Tzi Ma) as well as Mark Strong from Grimsby with Sacha Baron Cohen & Rebel Wilson), the 2008 movie The Children Of Huang Shi with Chow-Yun-fat, Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Radha Mitchell & of course, Babylon A.D. with Mr Dominic 'Dom' Toretto & Xander Cage himself, Vin Diesel.
So that's it, see you next time.
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