The contribution of Liz Thompson as a competitor and coach in surf lifesaving and canoeing was recognised in her induction into the Tairawhiti Legends of Sport. Photo / John Gillies
The contribution of Liz Thompson as a competitor and coach in surf lifesaving and canoeing was recognised in her induction into the Tairawhiti Legends of Sport. Photo / John Gillies
Surf lifesaving and canoeing great Liz Thompson was inducted into the Tairāwhiti Legends of Sport at the recent Tairāwhiti Sports Awards. John Gillies looks back at a career of competition and coaching that continues to this day.
Liz Thompson has been an Olympic competitor, surf lifesaving national champion and drivingforce in canoeing.
She was the first woman to be president of the Waikanae Surf Life Saving Club and the first woman to be made a life member.
And she and husband Alan steered the Poverty Bay Kayak Club to prominence in New Zealand canoeing.
Thompson is part of the fabric of aquatic sports in the district and has been recognised with induction into the Tairāwhiti Legends of Sport.
As a competitor, she was placed first or second in a ski event at national surf lifesaving championships in every one of 15 seasons from 1983.
In the latter part of her competitive career, Thompson partnered up-and-coming athletes in the double ski, winning nationals gold with Jackie Callahan twice and Leigh Webster three times, and silver with Kristen Glover twice.
The first double ski win with Webster, in 1995, came early in Thompson’s pregnancy with daughter Kim, and the third, in 1998, came when son Quaid was five weeks old.
Born Elizabeth Blencowe in Mackay, North Queensland, on January 10, 1961, she grew up in Melbourne from the age of 2. Mother Pat was a swimming coach and physical education teacher who used fun and familiarity in her swimming lessons.
It was an approach Thompson adopted for her own coaching of learners in the pool. She didn’t teach freestyle until her charges had mastered breaststroke.
As a youngster, she followed her brother David – three years her senior – into whitewater kayaking, and soon added slalom and sprint versions of the sport. In 1981 she contested the world championships of all three disciplines, but eventually concentrated on sprints.
Surf lifesaving great Liz Thompson has been inducted into the Tairāwhiti Legends of Sport. She is pictured with Turanga FM's Rahia Timutimu at the Tairāwhiti Sports Awards. Photo / Brennan Thomas, Strike Photography
Liz Blencowe met Alan Thompson when he was in Australia for the national championships in the lead-up to the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She missed selection for Moscow, and in late 1982 came to Gisborne for a fresh outlook as she prepared for the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
She was the only woman picked to paddle for Australia at those Games and finished eighth in the 500-metre final.
Back in Gisborne, Alan was keen to have her as part of a women’s programme and recruited three ski paddlers from Otaki. She taught them how to paddle a kayak.
By the time the women from Otaki arrived, Kiwanis club members had provided a clubhouse at Anzac Park. Changing rooms and hot showers replaced the hose belonging to the woman who lived next door to Bill De Costa’s section, the paddlers’ old training base at the end of Fitzherbert St.
Kayaking and surf lifesaving co-existed in Liz and Alan’s sporting world from 1983 to 2000, with coaching taking a steadily increasing share of their time. Within that journey, Liz was a policewoman promoted to sergeant. She married Alan Thompson (in 1991) and became a mother of two children destined to become elite paddlers themselves.
After a break when the children were young, Liz Thompson got back into kayak coaching after daughter Kim and a few friends became interested. She helped development coach Agi Szabo and, when Szabo left, she stepped up.
After being Poverty Bay Kayak Club’s head coach for much of the past decade, she decided – about the middle of this year – that the time was right to cut back on her duties.
At 64, she still teaches Pilates, which she has been practising since 2002, and continues to support Alan, Kim and Quaid in their endeavours. But the pace is more relaxed.
Liz Thompson was inducted into the Surf Life Saving New Zealand Sport Hall of Fame in 2016.
In February this year, it was announced she was one of four 2024 recipients of the Canoe Racing New Zealand Outstanding Service Award recognising outstanding contribution at club, regional or national level over at least 10 years.
