Our Olympic Legends, profiling New Zealand’s greatest Olympians, covers a vast range of our sports heroes, from the belatedly acknowledged 1900 water polo player Victor Lindberg to the super-talented Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and her teammates 126 years later at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.

 

As this book illustrates, New Zealanders have excelled across the full gamut of Olympic sports, and here are some of the successes and sensations, controversies and heartaches.

 

Author Joseph Romanos has bravely attempted to rank our top 50 Olympic Legends, arguably a very subjective exercise. What’s not to be argued is that all 50 Legends featured deserve a place among our elite sports heroes.