Sports History NZ

No New Zealander has won more Olympic medals than sprint kayaker Lisa Carrington. Sprint kayaker Lisa Carrington is Aotearoa’s most decorated Olympian of all time Between London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020, she won a total of five Olympic gold medals and one bronze, along with 10 world championships. Lisa was promoted to Dame Companion by Queen Elizabeth II in her 2022 New Year honours for serv...

Shot putter Tom Walsh has had a stellar career. What's next for this champion from Timaru? Shot putter Tom Walsh has had a stellar career. Two Olympic medals, two Commonwealth games gold medals (and a silver), plus a pair of indoor world champion titles. The some-time builder from Timaru has been both a New Zealand and a World champion and he once held the number one ranking in his sport. In Octob...

Lydia Bradey has been to the top of the world - quite a few times. In 1988 Lydia Bradey became the first woman to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen - the first New Zealander of any gender to do so. Lydia has climbed Everest six times in total. In the 2020 New Year honours, Bradey was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to mountaineering. She caught u...

Eliza McCartney has been to the top and the bottom of her sport. And she has begun the climb back up again. Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney has hit the top and the bottom of her sport and begun the climb back up again. She first picked up the sport at the age of 13. Just six years later she became the youngest Olympic medalist in the history of the women's pole vault event. But injuries sadly ke...

For two weeks, the country watched and waited as a pair of climbers were trapped on Aoraki/Mt Cook. November 1982. For two weeks the country was gripped by the plight of a pair of climbers trapped on Aoraki/Mt Cook. As a blizzard raged a rescue attempt got underway. It didn’t go well at first. All the while the pair were holed up in a small snow cave this size of a desk, hungry, cold and waiting....

For nearly a decade, Dame Susan Devoy was simply the best squash player in the world. For nearly a decade, Dame Susan Devoy was the best squash player in the world. In 1984 she won her first major title at the British Open against Lisa Opie. By the time she retired, Dame Susan had won 12 major titles including four World Opens and an astonishing eight British Open competitions. She talks to Jesse...

When the Springboks arrived in 1981, which side were you on? In this episode of Sports History NZ we look back at the 1981 Springbok rugby Tour and meet the man who talked us through it. Despite international condemnation, New Zealand had continued to play rugby against South Africa through the years of apartheid. We even toured there with a 'whites only' team. Then in 1981 the Springbok...

There's good. There's great. And then there's Erin Baker. Erin Baker was simply an incredible triathlete, one of the very best ever. She won the very first race she ever entered. By the time she retired in 1994, Erin had eight world championship titles over a variety of distances and was named Triathlete of the Decade. She even won a world duathlon title, just to keep things interesting. Erin was...

In 1983 tennis star Chris Lewis went all the way to the final at Wimbledon. Chris Lewis is one of the most successful New Zealand tennis players of all time. Among many career highlights, he is perhaps best known for the incredible tennis he played in the 1983 Wimbledon tournament - making it to the final against John McEnroe as an unseeded player. Chris spoke to Jesse Mulligan in March 2022 from...

Jesse Mulligan, host of the daily Afternoons programme on RNZ, talks to our athletes, administrators and journalists about major moments in New Zealand sport. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details