Great New Zealand Olympic Moments

booboo

Love that commentary. "Come on Jack! My god he's done it!" 
Trying to think of the most excited I've been by an Olympic medal. 
I think it was probably Todd and Charisma at LA. The nerves and tension were incredible. 
Loved Sarah Ulmer's ride at Athens. But being in Aus I didn't see much coverage of it. 
Bond and Murray in London was awesome. Especially as the Aussie comms (James Brayshaw) just loved them. 
On the subject of middle distance runners Snell's run in the 1500m at Tokyo was freakish. Didn't Davies say he was sprinting as fast as he could and Snell just gassed them? 
"The Golden Hour" in Rome has a certain legendary status too. 
Even if both the last two were before my time.

reprobate

that's a cool video eh, great run.
seeing him pulling on the silver fern jumper way back then can't help but think 'how on earth couldn't you useless politician fluffybunnies organise to just stick that on a flag and give us something half-decent to vote for'.

Billy Tell

A NZ commentator who sounds like he went to Eton. God save the King as the anthem if my ears don't deceive me. And the whole Nazi thing going on.

booboo

Billy!! Harold Abrahams was the commentator. He was very BBC. British. Not a NZer. 
(And from wiki ... And it wasn't Eton it was Bedford School and Repton School, then Gonville and Caius College Cambridge. Son of a Jewish immigramt - which is why he was able to run the 100m on Sunday whilst the Scottish guy being a devout Christian switched to the four hundy and they made a movie about it ... ).

Unco

I have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to the Olympics but this was by far and away my favourite moment of the 2012 London games:

Fucking brilliant to watch live.

taniwharugby

Danyon Loader, the Tri 1-2 in Athens, Ferg & Macd in LA

Immenso Rapido

Abrahams the commentator and Lovelock were personal friends IIRC, both at Oxford at the time, hence the biased support on the commentary (which I assume would have been unusual in those times)

Bovidae

Loader's gold medal swims in the pool were a highlight for me too. The other race I enjoyed was the Evers-Swindell twins second gold at Beijing where they pipped the Germans on the finish line by 1/100 th of a sec. Very tense watching that live.
 
BTW, Lovelock and Abrahams would have know eachother through the Achilles Club - a track and field club for past and present representatives of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Lovelock went to Oxford and Abrahams went to Cambridge.

Smudge

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="600759" data-time="1469651852">
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Danyon Loader, the Tri 1-2 in Athens, Ferg & Macd in LA
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We watched Loader's two medals in our 7th form common room (not sure how we got a TV assigned there, but . . . bonus!) - it was a rare occasion when we cheered for someone who had attended a rival co-ed school across town.
 
I couldn't make the parade when he got back to town, but it seems like it was pretty cool.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/back-in-the-day-danyon-loader-gets-hero-s-welcome-after-winning-olympic-gold-6049625'>https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/back-in-the-day-danyon-loader-gets-hero-s-welcome-after-winning-olympic-gold-6049625</a>

Mokey

I particularly love Snell's 1500m gold. He just wiped the floor with them in that last lap.
 
Also love all the rowing golds. I was involved in the pre work for Karapiro 2010, the construction of the HPC, and various parades, and had a lot to do with the rowers (I went to a special event at the Cambridge racecourse in 2008 where the rowing community/families watched the golden hour. Fuck, that was a great night.) They were really good people. Eric Murray was always a hoot. Jandals, potty mouth, totally himself. Mahe quiet and polite. I knew about him and Juliet long before it went public (was so obvious when you saw them together.) Rob Waddell was a bit of a sulky dick though. When all that selection stuff went down with Mahe, he wouldn't even stand near him or speak to him.

Chris B.

I think John Walker's gold for me. We watched it in a motor camp in Timaru and my sister and I had to go and ask the camp owner if he would turn on the TV so we could watch it. Then the whole room filled up with people watching.

taniwharugby

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Smudge" data-cid="600765" data-time="1469655608">
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We watched Loader's two medals in our 7th form common room (not sure how we got a TV assigned there, but . . . bonus!) - it was a rare occasion when we cheered for someone who had attended a rival co-ed school across town.
 
I couldn't make the parade when he got back to town, but it seems like it was pretty cool.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/back-in-the-day-danyon-loader-gets-hero-s-welcome-after-winning-olympic-gold-6049625'>https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/back-in-the-day-danyon-loader-gets-hero-s-welcome-after-winning-olympic-gold-6049625</a>
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IIRC one of his medals was on a weekend, my recollection of the finals was during a Northland golf trial, and everyone was on the course buzzing which was a Saturday or Sunday

SammyC

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Chris B." data-cid="600777" data-time="1469658395">
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I think John Walker's gold for me. We watched it in a motor camp in Timaru and my sister and I had to go and ask the camp owner if he would turn on the TV so we could watch it. Then the whole room filled up with people watching.
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bit before my time, but being a huge fan of middle distance running I think I've watched it 100 times on you tube.
 
Walkers running style is so graceful

Smudge

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="600789" data-time="1469661203">
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IIRC one of his medals was on a weekend, my recollection of the finals was during a Northland golf trial, and everyone was on the course buzzing which was a Saturday or Sunday
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We had school six days a week down here - we're a bit slow.
 
 
 
 
(must have just been one of the golds then)

taniwharugby

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Smudge" data-cid="600792" data-time="1469661476">
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We had school six days a week down here - we're a bit slow.
 
 
 
 
(must have just been one of the golds then)
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or you were a studious nerd ;)

Xpat2

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Chris B." data-cid="600777" data-time="1469658395">
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I think John Walker's gold for me. We watched it in a motor camp in Timaru and my sister and I had to go and ask the camp owner if he would turn on the TV so we could watch it. Then the whole room filled up with people watching.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
Was a huge middle distance fan in the '70's and our guys were truly world class.
 
John Walker, Rod Dixon and the very interestingly named Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus "Dick" Quax all medalled at the Olympics.
 
Quax was the 5000m record holder and Dixon went on to become the first non American to win the New York marathon
 
I remember Walker winning the gold and thinking " Well that's what I expected anyway"
 
Sort of like the AB's playing Scotland....

Chris B.

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Xpat2" data-cid="600808" data-time="1469666590">
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Was a huge middle distance fan in the '70's and our guys were truly world class.
 
John Walker, Rod Dixon and the very interestingly named Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus "Dick" Quax all medalled at the Olympics.
 
Quax was the 5000m record holder and Dixon went on to become the first non American to win the New York marathon
 
I remember Walker winning the gold and thinking " Well that's what I expected anyway"
 
Sort of like the AB's playing Scotland....
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Me too (a huge fan). I picked up a second hand copy of "Kiwis can fly" a few years back. Still a good read.

Xpat2

"Kiwis can fly" Yep! Used to have that one.
 
Loved Walker breaking the 3:50 mile and then this...."The following year Walker broke the world record for the 2000 metres, running 4:51.4 in <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo' title="Oslo">Oslo</a>, <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway' title="Norway">Norway</a>, on 30 June 1976. He smashed the existing ten-year-old record held by <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Jazy' title="Michel Jazy">Michel Jazy</a> by nearly five seconds; Walker regarded this run as the best he ever ran. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Cram' title="Steve Cram">Steve Cram</a> broke the record on 4 August 1985, running 4:51.39 at <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest' title="Budapest">Budapest</a>, <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary' title="Hungary">Hungary</a>"
 
He "smashed" a 10 year old record by five seconds that took another 10 years to break!

SammyC

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Chris B." data-cid="600814" data-time="1469666974">
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Me too (a huge fan). I picked up a second hand copy of "Kiwis can fly" a few years back. Still a good read.
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I've got it too.
 
In addition to Snells, Halburgs and Walkers Bio's (all signed copies) 
 
And every book that Lydiard and Gilmore wrote together. If any one is into running even just for fitness once a week, then "Run to the top" and "Run for Life" are must reads 
 
Was truly a golden era.

dogmeat

Listening to the rowing eight take gold at Munich. Pretty sure Keith Quinn was commentator. They were still fundraising ther night before they flew out to compete - went round the pubs of inner Akl raffling a whole pig.
 
Hockey gold was pretty good four years later in Montreal as was so unexpected and it was against Aussie and Manning? played his heart out in goal despite having a shattered kneecap for the last ten minutes.
 
I am too young to remember Snell's medals but I did get to see them when he visited our school upon his return to NZ. He ran around the playing field pursued by the whole school. I had no idea who he was or why we were running but my little legs pumped it out as fast as I could manage. I do remember getting to within a couple of feet of him and seeing the shiny medals but I still had no fucking clue what it was all about.
 
Every medal is special but the early ones are the ones that I remember most. Since then it's the disappointments that stand out the most. Oh the 1-2 in the tri at Athens was fucking cool.

The Silver Fern

Great New Zealand Olympic Moments