Key Facts

SPORTS
33
NZ Athletes
222
NZ Sports
22
Medaled Sports
11
Top 8 Finish
60%
Top 16 Finish
93%
Athletes
11,420

About the Games

The New Zealand Team has wrapped its Tokyo Olympic Games campaign, bringing home more medals than ever before.
 
The team departs Tokyo with 20 medals – 7 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze. The total surpassing the previous record medal tally of 18, set by the team that competed in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The most gold medals New Zealand has ever won at an Olympics is eight, in Los Angeles in 1984. This team to Tokyo team is next with 7, followed by the team in London in 2012 which won 6.
 
The medals were won across 11 sports, including gymnastics (trampolining) for the first time. Eleven of the 20 medals were won by women.
 
By winning five medals in Tokyo, three of them gold, rowing confirmed itself as New Zealand’s most successful Olympic sport in terms of medals, with 29, followed by athletics (26), sailing (23) and canoeing (15).

The hosting of the games was very uncertain due to the worldwide covid pandemic that struck in 2020. The games were delayed 12 months to ensure the athletes could compete however this meant there were no international spectators at the games. 

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Results

1st

Canoe/Kayak - Sprint (K-1 - 500m - Women)
Lisa Carrington

1st

Canoe/Kayak - Sprint (K-2 - 500m - Women)
NZL

Win

Rugby - Sevens (Rugby Sevens - Women)
NZL vs France

1st

Rowing (Single Scull - Women)
Emma Twigg

1st

Rowing (Coxless Pair - Women)
NZL

1st

Canoe/Kayak - Sprint (K-1 - 200m - Women)
Lisa Carrington

1st

Rowing (Eight - Men)
NZL

2nd

Cycling - Track (Keirin - Women)
Ellesse Andrews

2nd

Rowing (Eight - Women)
NZL

2nd

Rowing (Double Scull - Women)
NZL

Athlete Spotlight

All athletes
Lisa Carrington

Lisa Carrington

Canoe/Kayak - Sprint

EVENTS: Women's K4 500m, K2 500m, K1 200, K1 500

Lisa Carrington is New Zealand's most successful Olympian, having won a staggering six Olympic medals (five gold, one bronze).

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All sports
Rowing

Rowing

"New Zealand Rowing is embarking on an exciting chapter of sporting history. We are delighted with the performances of our athletes leading into the Olympic Games. The level will step up significantly for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games but we're thrilled to have medalled in seven Olympic events at the 2015 World Championships." - Alan Cotter, Rowing New Zealand High Performance Director

Our kiwi rowing stars have included:
The men’s eight who won gold at the Munich Olympics in 1972
Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell with two Olympic golds in the double scull (2004, 2008)
Rob Waddell (2000) and Mahe Drysdale (2012) who both won Olympic gold in the single scull
The gold medal winners at the London Olympics – Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen in the double scull, and Eric Murray and Hamish Bond in the coxless pair.

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