List of New Zealand sportspeople
Encyclopedia
Motorsports
- Burt MunroBurt MunroHerbert James "Burt" Munro was a New Zealand motorcycle racer, famous for setting an under-1,000 cc world record, at Bonneville, 26 August 1967. This record still stands today...
- Motorcycle speedwayMotorcycle speedwayMotorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
land speed record holder - Chris AmonChris AmonChristopher Arthur Amon MBE is a former motor racing driver. He was active in Formula One - racing in the 1960s and 1970s - and is widely regarded to be one of the best F1 drivers never to win a championship Grand Prix...
- auto racing - Possum Bourne - rally driving
- Scott DixonScott DixonScott Ronald Dixon, MNZM is a New Zealand motor racer who became the most successful all-time driver in the Indy Racing League championship in the United States when he won the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio in August 2009. This took his total to 21 wins...
- auto racing - Denny HulmeDenny HulmeDenis Clive "Denny" Hulme, OBE was a New Zealand racing driver, the 1967 Formula One World Champion for the Brabham team....
- world champion, auto racing - Ivan MaugerIvan MaugerIvan Mauger, OBE, MBE, is a retired motorcycle speedway rider. He won a record six World Championships, a feat only equalled by Tony Rickardsson of Sweden...
- six time Motorcycle speedwayMotorcycle speedwayMotorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
world champion - Bruce McLarenBruce McLarenBruce Leslie McLaren , born in Auckland, New Zealand, was a race-car designer, driver, engineer and inventor....
- racing driver - Greg MurphyGreg MurphyGreg Murphy is a racing driver, best known as a four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. Greg Murphy joined Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond presenting Top Gear, when it had its first international Live show at ASB Showgrounds in Auckland from February 12 - 15th 2009, and again when the show...
- auto racing - Chris PitherChris PitherChris Pither, born December 3, 1986 in Palmerston North, is a New Zealand racing driver. Pither started racing in his home country, coming up through the open wheeler ranks first through the evolved Formula Vee class Formula First, then Formula Ford...
- auto racing
Track and field
- David AmblerDavid AmblerDavid Ambler is a New Zealand sprinter.He is the current holder of the New Zealand men's under 19 record for the 100 metres, and ranks as the third fastest New Zealander over 100 m behind Chris Donaldson and Augustine Nketia...
, - 100m, 200m sprints - Anne AudainAnne AudainAnne Audain is a New Zealand middle and long distance athlete, competing in three Olympic Games. She has received the Member of the British Empire medal from Queen Elizabeth II of New Zealand for her services to athletics worldwide and was born as Anne Garrett.At the age of 17 she came ninth in...
- runner - Hamish CarterHamish CarterHamish Clive Carter ONZM is a New Zealand triathlete. He won the gold medal in triathlon at the 2004 Summer Olympics, his second Olympic games. Carter also competed on the International Triathlon Union World Cup circuit as a professional for many years, culminating in a silver medal in 2006 before...
- triathlete - Rod DixonRod DixonRodney Phillip "Rod" Dixon is a former New Zealand middle distance runner. He won the bronze medal over 1500 metres at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and in 1983 won the prestigious New York City Marathon.-Biography:...
- runner - Murray HalbergMurray HalbergSir Murray Gordon Halberg, ONZ, MBE is a former New Zealand middle distance runner who won the gold medal in the 5000 metres event at the 1960 Olympics. He also won gold medals in the 3 miles events at the 1958 and 1962 Commonwealth Games...
- runner - Jack LovelockJack LovelockJohn Edward Lovelock was a New Zealand athlete, and the 1936 Olympic champion in the 1500 metres....
- runner - Arthur LydiardArthur LydiardArthur Leslie Lydiard, ONZ, OBE, was a New Zealand runner and athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularizing the sport of running and making it commonplace across the sporting world...
- running coach - Lorraine MollerLorraine MollerLorraine Mary Moller is a former athlete from New Zealand who competed in track athletics and later specialised in the marathon. Moller's international career lasted over 20 years and included three Commonwealth and four Olympic Games...
- runner, won Boston Marathon - Dick QuaxDick QuaxTheodorus Jacobus Leonardus "Dick" Quax is a New Zealand runner and former world record holder in the 5000 metres. He stood for Parliament with the ACT Party in 1999 and 2002...
- runner - John Walker - runner, Olympic champion
- Allison RoeAllison RoeAllison Pamela Roe, MBE is a former long-distance athlete from New Zealand. In 1981 she won both the Boston and New York Marathons in course record times...
- runner, won Boston and New York City Marathons 1981 - Peter SnellPeter SnellSir Peter George Snell, KNZM, MBE is a former New Zealand athlete, now resident in Texas, United States. He had one of the shortest careers of world famous international sportsmen, yet achieved so much that he was voted New Zealand’s "Sports Champion of the Century"...
- runner, three times Olympic Champion - Nick WillisNick WillisNicholas Ian Willis MNZM is a New Zealand middle distance runner. He won the silver medal in the 1500m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with a time of 3:34.16 minutes. He was a gold medallist in the 1500 metres at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and a bronze medallist at the 2010...
- runner, Commonwealth champion, Olympic Silver medallist - Joseph Millar- 100m, 200m, 400m and 4x400m Relay. IAAF World Juniors Competitor
Watersports
- Sir Peter BlakePeter Blake (yachtsman)Sir Peter James Blake, KBE was a New Zealand yachtsman who won the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Jules Verne Trophy – setting the fastest time around the world of 74 days 22 hours 17 minutes 22 seconds on catamaran Enza, and led his country to successive victories in the America’s Cup...
- yachtsman - Trent BrayTrent BrayTrent Bray is a former freestyle swimmer and surf lifesaver from New Zealand, who competed at two consecutive Summer Olympics. He also won 3 Gold medals and 3 bronze at the 1998 World Surf Lifesaving Championships...
- world champion swimmer - Russell CouttsRussell CouttsSir Russell Coutts, KNZM, CBE is a competitive sailor. His achievements include a Gold medal in the Finn Class in the 1984 Olympic Games, winning the America's Cup four times, the ISAF World Youth championships, three World Match Racing Championships, numerous international match race wins and...
- yachtsman, Olympic Champion - Caroline Evers-SwindellCaroline Evers-SwindellCaroline Meyer formerly known as Caroline Evers-Swindell is a former New Zealand rower. She is 179 cm tall and 80kg. She competed in the double sculls with her identical twin sister Georgina Earl...
, champion rower - Georgina Evers-SwindellGeorgina Evers-SwindellGeorgina Earl, formerly known as Georgina Evers-Swindell is a former New Zealand rower. She competed in the double sculls with her identical twin sister Caroline Meyer, and is a double Olympic gold medalist, having won at Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008...
, champion rower - Ian Ferguson - kayakKayakA kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...
er - Danyon LoaderDanyon LoaderDanyon Loader ONZM is an Olympic champion, former World Record holding swimmer from New Zealand, based in Dunedin...
- double olympic champion swimmer - Jonathan WinterJonathan WinterJonathan Winter is a member of the Ngai Tahu Maori tribe and a former backstroke swimmer from New Zealand, who competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States, for his native country...
- world champion swimmer
Golf
- Michael CampbellMichael CampbellMichael Shane Campbell, CNZM is a New Zealand golfer who is best known for having won the 2005 U.S. Open and the richest prize in golf, the £1,000,000 HSBC World Match Play Championship, in the same year. He is a member of the European Tour.Ethnically, he is predominantly Māori, from the Ngati...
- golfer - Sir Bob CharlesBob Charles (golfer)Sir Robert James Charles, ONZ, KNZM, CBE is a New Zealand professional golfer whose achievements over five decades rank him among the most successful left-handed golfers of all time, being the first lefty to win a golf major, winning more than 70 titles, and beating his age twice during a...
- champion golfer - Steve WilliamsSteve Williams (caddy)Steve Williams, MNZM is a New Zealander who has served as caddy for several top professional golfers, most recently with Adam Scott. Williams is most known for having served as Tiger Woods' caddy from 1999 to 2011. Woods was the top-ranked golfer in the world for much of Williams' tenure as...
- caddy - Danny LeeDanny Lee (golfer)Danny Jin-Myung Lee is a professional golfer from Rotorua, New Zealand. Lee was born in South Korea and emigrated to New Zealand at the age of eight. His name in Hangul is 이진명. He became a naturalized New Zealander on 2 September 2008 at Rotorua, where he attended Rotorua Boys' High...
(golfer)
Miscellaneous
- Bob FitzsimmonsBob FitzsimmonsRobert James "Bob" Fitzsimmons , was a British boxer who made boxing history as the sport's first three-division world champion. He also achieved fame for beating Gentleman Jim Corbett, the man who beat John L. Sullivan, and is in The Guinness Book of World Records as the Lightest heavyweight...
- world boxing heavyweight champion (born in UK, raised in NZ) - Tom FyfeTom FyfeTom Fyfe was a self-taught New Zealand mountaineer from Timaru. He led the first group of three people named Jack Clarke and George Graham climbers who made the first ascent of Aoraki/Mount Cook on December 25th, 1894.-References:...
- mountaineer and mountain guide - Tony Garea - Former WWWF/WWF professional wrestler
- Sir Richard HadleeRichard HadleeSir Richard John Hadlee, MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer who played provincial cricket for Canterbury, Nottinghamshire and Tasmania. He is the son of Walter Hadlee, and the brother of Dayle and Barry Hadlee. His former wife Karen also played international cricket for New Zealand.Hadlee was...
- cricketer - Sir Edmund HillaryEdmund HillarySir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
- mountaineer - Precious McKenziePrecious McKenziePrecious McKenzie MBE was a South African-born weightlifter who won Commonwealth titles representing both England and New Zealand and has won several World powerlifting and Masters World powerlfting titles...
- weightlifter (born in South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
) - Wynton RuferWynton RuferWynton Alan Whai Rufer, CNZM, , is a retired New Zealand footballer, who played as a striker. He spent most of his professional career in Germany with Werder Bremen, winning a total of six titles. He also appeared for the New Zealand national team in its first FIFA World Cup participation, in 1982...
- soccer player, voted Oceania Player of the Century - Mark Todd - horseman
- Sarah UlmerSarah UlmerSarah Elizabeth Ulmer, ONZM is the first New Zealander to win an Olympic cycling gold. She won a gold medal and set world records at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens,....
- cyclist - Irene Van DykIrene van DykIrene van Dyk, MNZM is one of the world's best-known netball players and the most capped player of all time....
- netball player (born in South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
) - John WalkerJohn Walker (runner)Sir John George Walker, KNZM, CBE, is a former middle distance runner from New Zealand.Walker was the first person to run the mile in under 3:50, and won the Olympic Games 1500m in Montreal in 1976....
- runner - Michael WalkerMichael Walker (jockey)Michael Walker is New Zealand jockey of Māori ancestry. He was born in Rotorua, New Zealand in the central districts of the North Island, although his family later moved to Waitara. At the age of 11 Walker approached noted thoroughbred trainer Allan Sharrock, asking for work with his horses....
- jockey - Sarah WalkerSarah Walker (BMX rider)Sarah Walker is a BMX racer who was born in Whakatane, New Zealand, currently residing in Kawerau, New Zealand. She started BMXing in 1999 when she saw her brother, Matt, riding one day . And she has made her career from there ever since....
- BMX rider - Adine WilsonAdine WilsonAdine Rachel Wilson Harper is a New Zealand international netball representative.-Personal background:...
- netball player(former captain) - Tony WildingTony WildingAnthony "Tony" Frederick Wilding was a champion tennis player from Christchurch, New Zealand and a soldier killed in action during World War I near Neuve-Chapelle, Pas-de-Calais, France....
- tennis player - Casey WilliamsCasey WilliamsCasey May Williams, ONZM is a New Zealand international netball player. Williams is the current captain of the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns, and plays for the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic in the ANZ Championship.Williams has been a member of the New Zealand national netball...
- netball player (current captain)