Olympics: Small town NZ home to winners

Small town New Zealand is still the home of our Olympic medallists despite the big cities having most of the country's high-performance facilities.

As an example, Wanganui, population 43,500, has, at time of writing, the most medals on a per capita basis, seven. This compared with the 23 medal-winning Olympians born in Auckland, population 1,486,000, and 18 in Christchurch, population 380,900.

Provincial towns such as Methven, Huntly and Waverley have all contributed to New Zealand's 104-year Olympic history but because of their shrinking sporting resources, small population and often lack of a maternity ward, we may never see them represented on the podium again.

Towns that have enjoyed relative success, each with four Olympic medallists, are Rotorua, birthplace of Valerie Adams, Lower Hutt, birthplace of Nick Willis and Hastings, birthplace of the Evers-Swindell twins. Hamilton, two medal winners, and Tauranga, one, are underachievers considering their populations.

New Plymouth-born bronze medallist Barry Magee says most athletes move from the provinces to the cities for training and work opportunities.

"Cities are where the athletes eventually end up, however you never forget your roots," he says.

Magee, who was a huge influence for Peter Snell during the Lydiard era, moved out of the provinces at a young age because of his father's work but always calls Taranaki home.

"Snell feels the same. He was born in Opunake. There is always a strong emotional connection to your birth town," says the former marathon runner.

Magee, whose bronze came at the 1960 Rome games, now travels to provincial schools and shares his Olympic stories.

"The kids just love it. You can see how much the Olympics means to provincial New Zealand," he says.

Former Wanganui-based Olympian Philippa Baker-Hogan says natural geography always plays an important role in the development of Olympic athletes.

"The Waikato and Wanganui regions will remain great breeding grounds for rowing because of its rivers, while Auckland will continue its rich history in water sports, sailing and canoeing," she says.

She says Wanganui has such a rich sporting history because its residents are aware of the town's sporting success and want to represent their town with pride.

Wanganui's seven medal-winning athletes are one more than Dunedin and one behind Wellington.

Baker-Hogan says the challenge for provincial towns is to try to maintain their success as sporting organisations move their resources and facilities into bigger cities.

Sport New Zealand marketing and communications manager Laurie Edwards acknowledges New Zealand follows a world model for high performance sport to cluster athletes together in cities.

"It's no accident that we build high performance centres for different sports next to each other," he says.

"However we have tried to keep high performance sport in provincial New Zealand with the new velodrome being built in Cambridge, not far from where our elite rowers train".

Edwards still believes elite athletes and Olympians will be born in New Zealand's provinces but says high performance management will continue to focus on higher population areas.

Some of New Zealand's lesser known Olympic towns are Crushington, on the Lewis Pass Road, the birthplace of 1500m Olympic Champion Jack Lovelock, and Sir Murray Halberg was born in Eketahuna, Wairarapa.