Our First Olympians
by Bill Nagelkerke
“Faster, higher, stronger ...” The Olympic Games have been a source of international interest and entertainment since the late nineteenth century. This article provides information on some of our earliest Olympians, with a particular focus on the four athletes who attended the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. It was the first year that Aotearoa New Zealand had sent an independent national team to the games, and despite facing additional challenges of distance and expense, all four athletes made the finals with one winning a bronze medal. The final paragraph of the article extols the benefits of aiming high and working hard to achieve a goal.
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