Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Sideline Sids avid quest to learn about early New Zealand, while at school, has led to a life-long search for knowledge of Kiwi sporting history.

A piece on SunLive last week, about Tauranga hosting an event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first New Zealand team that participated in the Antwerp Olympic Games in1920, grabbed Sideline Sids attention.

A keen student of New Zealand Olympic participation and success, he headed to the worldwide web to re-cement the facts.

The online "New Zealand History" tells us that New Zealand sent a team of just four, with two athletes being sprinter George Davidson and hurdler Harry Wilson, along with single sculler Darcy Hadfield and swimmer Violet Walrond, who became our first female Olympian.

The minuscule New Zealand team set the bar high for the future generations of Kiwi Olympians, with all four making their respective finals.

Darcy Hadfield was awarded our countries first Olympic medal, receiving a bronze medallion after finishing third in the single sculls.

Harry Wilson narrowly missed a medal in finishing fourth in the 110m hurdles, while George Davidson and Violet Walrond each claimed fifth position in the 200m sprint and 100m freestyle, respectively.

The honour of winning New Zealand's first Olympic Gold Medal belongs to boxer Ted Morgan, who won the Welterweight division at the 1928 Olympic Games, held in Amsterdam.

The 1200 page "Complete Book of the Olympics" tells us that when twenty-one year old Edward Morgan left New Zealand by ship, he was a lightweight.

When he arrived in Amsterdam six weeks later, he was a welterweight. Compounding his adversities was a broken knuckle suffered in sparring.

Victories over a Swede and French opponents, propelled the Wellington boxer to the semi-finals where he outboxed Canovan from Italy.

In the gold medal title decider, the New Zealander negated the skills of knockout specialist Raul Landini from Argentina, to win New Zealand's first Olympic title.

Yvette Williams (later Dame Yvette Corlett) became the first woman from our country to win Olympic Gold.

Williams won the Olympic long jump gold medal at the 1952 Olympics held in Helsinki, setting an Olympic record.

Williams must surely be remembered as New Zealand's most versatile athlete. The New Zealand "Athlete of the Century" at the 100th anniversary of Athletes New Zealand in 1987, claimed the world record that she had just missed in Helsinki, in Gisborne during 1954.

At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Vancouver, Williams won gold medals in the long jump, discus and shot put, setting new Empire Games records.

Her outstanding versatility was shown when she finished sixth in the 80m hurdles. She also found time to represent New Zealand in basketball.

The most Olympic Gold medals belongs to kayaking legend Ian Ferguson, who won three at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and a further gold medallion at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Ferguson' s team-mate Paul McDonald claimed three gold medals alongside the country's most celebrated Olympian in (Sir) Peter Snell who stunned the nation winning in Rome in 1960 and completing the 800 and 1500 metres track double four years later in Tokyo.

The country now looks forward to the re-scheduled 2020 Olympics in 12 months time, with the expectation that our little country at the end of the world will continue to punch above our weight, with the New Zealand anthem being heard on the medal podium again.