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

The final countdown to the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, which are more commonly known as the Rio Olympics, is well and truly underway.

As always, expectations are high for the large kiwi contingent heading for Rio de Janeiro, however, the reality of performances verses the expert's pick of the likely New Zealand medal haul, are often poles apart.

New Zealand best medal tally has been at the 2012 London games and the 1988 Seoul (South Korea) Olympics where we won 13 medals apiece.

In London, New Zealand won six gold medals against three gold medallions in Seoul.

However, the biggest Kiwi gold medal tally came at the 1984 Los Angles games where an Eastern Bloc boycott resulted in New Zealand winning eight gold.

Before we get carried away about New Zealand success in Rio, it's worth casting our minds back to the 2000 Olympics just across the ditch in Sydney.

In spite of near home-town advantage, the New Zealand Olympic representatives returned home with a paltry tally of just one gold and three bronze medals.

Continued strong financial support from High Performance Sport New Zealand has put our country in a strong position to bring home gold from the South American Olympics.

For many years there was plenty of envy of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, which was established after Australia failed to a single gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

New Zealand chose to go down the path of funding sports that produced the goods at world championships and similar elite sports events, worldwide.

While HPSNZ can't compete with the huge budgets of the likes of Great Britain and Australia and numerous other nations, they believe that they do it well by prioritising our target sports.

Rowing and cycling have been the big winners in the funding stakes over the last four-year Olympic cycle and will be expected to lead the way in Rio, with a number of medals.

The New Zealand target has been set at 14 plus, which would make it the country's most successful Olympics ever.

There are plenty of other Kiwi athletes expected to shine in Rio with the likes of canonist Lisa Carrington, Valerie Adams who is chasing her third Olympic Gold medal, and Lydia Ko looking a strong prospect in the golf.

Tauranga's own Peter Burling and partner Blair Tuke look a standout in the yachting, while the New Zealand Men's and Women's Rugby Sevens sides are amongst the favorites to claim gold, in the return of rugby to the Olympic Games after a 92 year absence.

However, the great uncertainty of sport will throw up a number of underdogs that will upset the hot-pots.

Amongst the grey headed sports fans, who can forget the joy of Dick Taylor lying on the track after upsetting the favourites in the 1974 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres in Christchurch.

There will be plenty of long days and sleepless nights, as we watch the wall to wall Sky coverage as 'our” athletes endeavour to write their own piece of Olympic history.