New Zealand’s medal haul crept up by two overnight as the Paris games close, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

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Don’t cry because it’s over

The problem with choosing to travel to America at the start of August was that it meant visiting a part of the world that had an even more inconvenient time difference for watching the Olympics than here in New Zealand – at least for medal events we were involved in. Joel MacManus valiantly argued in favour of solitary 4am sport watching, but, while on holiday, I just didn’t have it in me. Nevertheless, from the moment I returned home I’ve been engrossed in the final weekend of the sporting action, from a monumental effort by Maddi Wesche in the women’s shot put (with a final throw that briefly perplexed even the commentators, as The Spinoff’s Madeleine Chapman explained) to the incredible Australian breakdancer Raygun who has rightfully taken over my Twitter feed. Since my return on Saturday, the front pages of all our national news sites have been a flurry of Olympic recaps, interviews and general celebration (with a side dose of Lotto fever). With the closing ceremony about to kick off, let’s farewell the 2024 Olympic Games.

Our golden games

Overnight, another two medals were added to New Zealand’s tally which now sits at 20. Ellesse Andrews won her second gold at the velodrome, followed by Ally Wollaston’s bronze in the women’s omnium. It makes this our most successful Olympics ever, equalling Tokyo for total medals but ahead of 1984’s Los Angeles campaign for gold medals with 10. Shortly, the closing ceremony will take place with Lisa Carrington and Finn Butcher named as New Zealand’s flag bearers. On the medal table, we end our campaign in 11th place (undoubtedly higher if you get into the whole “per capita” thing).

1News has looked back at all of our big wins in Paris, which will be remembered most for an exciting surge in gold medals on Saturday night when we picked up three – Lisa Carrington earned her eighth, for the K1 500m, Lydia Ko scored in the women’s golf and Hamish Kerr pulled off a dramatic victory in the high jump. Kerr explained his decision not to split the gold, as had been done in 2021, in this interview with 1News. As the Herald’s Cameron McMillan noted, the triple-gold was even more impressive given that between 1988 and 2008, New Zealand didn’t win more than three gold medals at a single Olympics, let alone on a single day.

Our greatest Olympian becomes even greater

Lisa Carrington was already our best performing Olympic athlete, but her three medals in Paris pushes her closer to being one of the greatest Olympians of all time. She’s technically ranked 44th when it comes to overall medals, but rises considerably closer to the top when measured by her eight golds. That’s equal footing with Usain Bolt and more than US gymnast Simone Biles. Dylan Cleaver at The Bounce pointed out on Friday that, mind bogglingly, Carrington’s medal wins amount to 11% of all golds ever won by New Zealand at the games (since her latest win, it’s more like 12%). The success of Carrington is not to diminish the efforts of our other athletes on the water, notably Aimee Fisher who, while missing out on a medal, contributed to what commentators dubbed the “race of the century”. The Herald’s Michael Burgess wrote a nice feature on Fisher and her friendly rivalry with Carrington, acknowledging that while the pair are not “close friends” there is “immense mutual respect”. Burgess also has a great behind the scenes look at the training routine of our Olympic canoeists.

Many highs, but some lows too

Some of the biggest highlights from Paris have been off the water. Few had predicted Maddi Wesche’s podium placement in the shot put, for example. As Dylan Cleaver reflected, her silver highlighted why the Olympics is often so exhilarating: “someone will almost always surprise you”. The games have not been without disappointment – think most of our swimming hopefuls from week one. But for me, the most confounding moments have been unrelated to our athletes.

The illness-inducing Seine, for example, which has similarities to our own polluted waterways, as The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias examined. A comment on the article wryly pointed out that, perhaps, the Paris river had inadvertently become the best marketing campaign for cleaning up our own. Arguably less significant, though absolutely worthy of this searing Spinoff takedown by Madeleine Chapman, the state of New Zealand’s Olympics uniforms. Given how often our athletes have popped up on the podium this year, we can only hope things have improved in the clothing department come 2028.

The full list of medal winners:

• Black Ferns Sevens: rugby sevens, women’s tournament (GOLD)
• Lucy Spoors, Brooke Francis: rowing, women’s double sculls (GOLD)
• Finn Butcher: canoe slalom, men’s kayak cross (GOLD)
• Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett, Tara Vaughan: canoe sprint, women’s K4 500 (GOLD)
• Ellesse Andrews: cycling, women’s keirin (GOLD)
• Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin: canoe sprint, women’s K2 500 (GOLD)
• Lisa Carrington: canoe sprint, women’s K1 500 (GOLD)
• Lydia Ko: golf, women’s tournament (GOLD)
• Hamish Kerr: athletics, men’s high jump (GOLD)
• Ellesse Andrews: cycling, women’s individual sprint (GOLD)
• Hayden Wilde: triathlon, men’s individual (SILVER)
• Matt Macdonald, Tom Murray, Logan Ullrich, Oliver Maclean: rowing, men’s coxless four (SILVER)
• Isaac McHardie, Will McKenzie: sailing, men’s 49er (SILVER)
• Emma Twigg: rowing, women’s single sculls (SILVER)
• Rebecca Petch, Shaane Fulton, Ellesse Andrews: cycling, women’s team sprint (SILVER)
• Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman, Nicole Shields, Ally Wollaston: cycling, women’s team pursuit (SILVER)
• Maddi Wesche: athletics, women’s shot put (SILVER)
• Kerri Williams, Davina Waddy, Phoebe Spoors, Jackie Gowler: rowing, women’s coxless four (BRONZE)
• Micah Wilkinson, Erica Dawson: sailing, mixed multihull (BRONZE)
• Ally Wollaston: cycling, women’s omnium (BRONZE)