Romanos: I had a few arguments with my friends about who our greatest Olympians were. You know, we argue all the time about that. And I thought, well, I’ll actually work out who my best ones are. I was running it by them, and we started talking about it quite a lot. And I thought, you know, it’s a good discussion point. I’ll profile them all, because their stories go back a long way, and people don’t know some of those earlier stories very well at all.
Tell me about your methodology.
Quality of performance, obviously, that’s very high. But I had a look at the opposition as well. We had Olympic boycotts. But also, at some earlier ones, there were no African runners, for example. It was a smaller world, is all I’d say. And then I felt longevity meant quite a lot to me. There are some people who are very good at one Olympics, but if you’re very good at four or five or six — like Val Adams or Lisa Carrington or Mark Todd — I sort of took a lot of notice of that, too.
You also mention the impact on New Zealand. That’s an interesting one.
Yeah, a good example for me was that 1972 rowing eight. That was absolutely huge when they won, huge. And also Danyon Loader. When Danyon won, that was bloody big. Definitely the quality of performance was first. I mean, if you’re not doing well, it doesn’t matter whether people enjoy watching you or not.
It was really hard. It’s hard to compare a gold medallist from 2024 with a gold medallist from 1984. I’ll just give you one example. Yvette Williams won a gold medal in 1952 in the long jump. And Hamish Kerr won a high jump gold medal a couple of years ago. I mean, they’re sort of an equivalent performance to me. The only difference was there was a real pioneering aspect to Yvette. She was our first female gold medallist. That’s a lot to overcome. She was paving the way. Kerr was fantastic. And you could make the case he’s a top-tier athlete, but then they all are. But I just thought, Yvette ... just the impact she had on New Zealand. I mean, she did a nationwide tour like the Queen, stopping at little towns all the way. It was huge. And then the pioneering aspect as well. So, I just ranked her a bit higher than him. And yet, they’re sort of equivalent performances.
I won’t give away too much but you rank canoeing star Lisa Carrington No 1. Was she always in the top spot?
Definitely. It wasn’t even close for me. But I talk to my sports friends, some of them journalists, and I’m getting a lot of gip from them. Peter Snell was my greatest Olympian for a long time, and in fact our greatest sportsman, I thought. But if you’re talking about Olympics, eight gold medals, that’s hard to beat. And also, Lisa never lost in her specialty events. She’s really sensational.
My theory is that we might see another superstar kayaker like Carrington some day, and we might see another middle-distance gold medallist — maybe Sam Ruthe not too far in the future — but I don’t think we’ll ever see a New Zealand swimmer do what Danyon Loader did in 1996. Thoughts?
Yeah, I’m with you. He’s No 3 in my book. That’s how high I think he is. He won two individual freestyle gold medals at the Olympics. How many other New Zealanders have won a freestyle medal of any colour? He was really something. He was brilliant.
Oh, I think so, judging by the feedback I’m getting. But having been to the Olympics a lot, I think what goes on in that velodrome is really hotly contested. That is a tough environment. You’ve got to fight and scrap for everything, and she’s just been fantastic, and not just in a team, in individual events as well. It was just noticeable that the people she was beating were basically saying, we can’t beat her.
Another big call is the Black Ferns Sevens ahead of canoeing great Ian Ferguson.
It’s that question again — which one do you think had more impact on the New Zealand public? I feel like the New Zealand public got right behind that rugby team. I think they loved the passion they played with and the pride. I just felt they really captured New Zealand well. I loved the way they represented New Zealand.
I’ve always been a Jack Lovelock obsessive, but was it hard to put Jack above Hamish Bond?
No. Lovelock was fantastic. What he did ... you know, we may never have that again. I mean, he set a world record and it was a particularly torrid Olympics. And they said this is the greatest field ever assembled when they all lined up. And he won it by 10m. It was only one performance, but it was such a great performance and it was world headlines and it made him a New Zealand superstar. I think he’s up there on the same level as Bond. And I felt that Lovelock’s been under-rated in modern New Zealand sports society. People don’t fully understand how good he was and how big, of course, the mile was. Honestly, I was pretty happy to get Lovelock in the top 10 because, if you look at it, I’m missing out some good competitors. Mahe Drysdale and Lydia Ko and people like that — they’re not in the top 10.
It strikes me that an awful lot of your top 50 either came from Otago or spent time in Otago. Are we a province that has punched above its weight in Olympic terms?
Yeah, definitely. A little bit of it is having Otago University there, I think. Because that brings in people like Lovelock and Arthur Porritt, right? But even so, even besides that, Otago produces hardy, highly competitive, tough athletes. I think they compete well internationally. Danyon talked about being “just little old me from Dunedin up against the world’’.
If this list gets updated in 20 years, would you expect more Winter Olympians to make it?
You would expect more, but you have to be careful there. They’re great, but they’re introducing more and more Winter Olympic sports to fill out the programme a bit, and I wouldn’t like it to get to breakdancing or something. It’s got to be a bona fide, genuine world sport, not just something that they’ve manufactured just to fill in the second Tuesday of the Winter Olympics or something. I don’t mean that disparagingly about anyone now, but it worries me that they could go on and on making up more sports. I don’t know if it holds up as much weight as some of those traditional summer sports once you do that.
Who’s your favourite New Zealand Olympian?
Lovelock’s definitely there. Yvette Williams. And I think Sarah Ulmer. I was so proud of her when she won. She conducted herself so well afterwards, and yeah, she was really great.
And a lesser-known favourite?
Mike Ryan. He’s No 38. He won bronze at altitude in the marathon when all these top guys were getting hospitalised. I mean, they were trying not to die because of the altitude, and Ryan won a bronze medal against all the African runners. It was a hugely under-rated performance. No-one else over there could believe a white guy had done that. No way any white guys are going to get a medal in the 5000m or the 10,000m or the marathon. It’s just not possible.
Favourite Olympic Games you attended?
I think Sydney 2000. Good, very knowledgeable crowds. Big crowds. It wasn’t too hot. Some of these Olympics, it’s just, it’s unbearably hot. I don’t know how they compete. Barcelona was in the 40s. Sydney wasn’t too hot, and had good facilities, good transport, and just a general understanding of sport by everybody, not just the spectators, but officials and public generally. It made the whole thing pretty enjoyable, actually. And Sydney had my favourite sports moment, which was Cathy Freeman winning the 400m at home. Magic. Talk about pressure, man.
Are the Olympics still as important or relevant as they were?
I think they’re incredibly important to the athletes. I don’t think there’s anything they’d rather have than an Olympic gold medal. But is that because it’s probably prestigious, but also, you know, it’s going to open the doors to some good sponsorship? I think I’m like everybody else. I think they should pare back the Olympics a bit. There’s some sports I think should go. I don’t know why we have things like modern pentathlon in there. It’s a joke to me. There’s absolutely no relevance for it now, and yet there it is. And they’re supposed to be trying to appeal to the youth of today. I’m dubious. But it is a great gathering of people, and it produces fantastic stories and great dramas and great disasters.
Are you looking forward to the debate the book is going to prompt?
Well, I hope there’s some debate. I hope it’s not just categorically saying this is wrong and this is wrong. It’s good to discuss these things. And in the end, no-one’s right, are they? You could make a case that Lydia Ko could be No 1, or you could make a case that Val Adams should be No 1. It’s just someone’s opinion in the end.
