It
began with Hayden Wilde from Whakatāne when he took home the country's first medal, a bronze, at the triathlon.
And now Eastern Bay's Lisa Carrington has now been crowned New Zealand's most successful Olympian with her latest addition - a gold in the K1 500 on Thursday afternoon.
She also powered her way through the water on Tuesday winning two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics – first she won the women's K1 200m final, then an hour and a half later, she and her teammate Caitlin Regal blitzed the rest of the field in the women's K2 500.
"Just to even get an Olympic medal is so special, and I know how hard that is from what I've done individually. But to be able to do that with a teammate and racing against the best countries in the world - to think that we were able to get on top of the podium today is just so special," she said during her post-race interview.
Stacey Fluher from Whakatāne and captain Sarah Hirini from Rotorua are part of an almost unstoppable Black Ferns sevens team who trounced France in the gold-medal match last week.
That result, in my opinion, is the product of sweat, tears and sacrifice.
An emotional Valerie Adams, originally from Rotorua, who also had to sacrifice time away from her young family, took a bronze in the women's shot put.
Meanwhile, on the same day as Carrington's medal haul, Tauranga's Peter Burling and his teammate Blair Tuke were busy winning silver in the men's 49er sailing race.
Ngarohi McGarvey-Black from Rotorua, Joe Webber from Tokoroa, Dylan Collier from Ōpotiki, William Warbrick from Kawerau and the men's rugby sevens team lost to Fiji in the gold medal match last week, bringing home the silver.
Dylan Schmidt of Waihi took a bronze in the men's trampoline.
And it's not over yet - there is one more medal within Carrington's reach with the women's K4 500.
Jen Schmidt probably epitomises the amount of passion, effort and sacrifice that is required to produce an Olympic medallist.
She drove Dylan and his siblings from Waihi to Auckland four times a week so they could practise.
"We would get home at about 11 and I would throw them into bed and they would get up and go to school. What I look back on it now I wonder 'how the hell did we do it?'" she says.
Having such dedicated support systems is what many athletes credit for their success. I'm so grateful we have so many of those people here in the Bay.
With the amount of talent we have in the Bay of Plenty, it's no wonder we're producing such an amazing result.
