KEY POINTS:
The search for New Zealand's 1000th Olympian is on.
But the identity of who will have the honour will not be revealed until after the Beijing Olympics.
Will it be one of the synchronised swimming sisters Lisa or Nina Daniels, a first- time hockey player, athlete James Dolphin,
one of the 32 soccer players (all first-timers), or any other of those having their first shot at Olympic glory?
All will be revealed to team members on the return flight from Beijing and announced publicly on their arrival home.
New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary general Barry Maister makes no apology for the mystery.
"While we see it as a significant in New Zealand's sporting heritage, we feel the emphasis should be on the fact we will soon have 1000 New Zealanders who can proudly call themselves Olympians," said Maister. "We feel that is what the focus should be, rather than on the individual."
Interestingly, when Kevin O'Neill ran on to Carisbrook to replace injured Ali Williams last Saturday night, he became All Black No 1078. In Beijing, a New Zealand Olympian will be allocated the same number meaning, for the first time, New Zealand will have more Olympians than All Blacks.
Keen to accurately identify New Zealand's 1000th, Maister, and others, driven by the three-year-old Olympians Club and in particular hockey stalwart and now Sparc chief executive Peter Miskimmin, have been painstakingly compiling a list of all New Zealanders who have been members of a summer or winter Olympic team.
The NZOC plans to recognise every Olympian by awarding them a numbered pin based on the order in which they joined that select club. They have already planned Olympic Day 2009 - June 23 - as the date they intend to organise presentation functions.
"We want to do this in as many cities as we can and get together as many Olympians as possible and present them with their badges," said Maister. "One of the most gratifying aspects of this exercise has been the interest shown by the athletes who are really keen to find out what number we come up with for them."
Working from the start - the 1908 Games - in which three New Zealanders, track walker Harry Kerr, also New Zealand's first medallist, hurdler Henry Murray, who was the flag-bearer for the Australasian team, and Arthur Rowland, another walker, the committee have worked their way through to the most recent - the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
Early on it was easy.
They established which New Zealanders had been involved, put their names in alphabetical order within each Games team, gave them a number and moved on. As the teams grew, the task became more difficult.
They had to remove any second-time (or more) Olympian from their list.
"We have settled on accreditation into the Games Village as the criteria for becoming an Olympian," said Maister. "This is at odds with the IOC who do not recognise anyone who does not actually take part. We feel this is unfair."
In 1976, at his third of the three Games, Maister, who comes in at about No 235 on the all-time list, was a member of the [gold medal-winning] hockey team which had two players who never got as far as the substitute's bench.
But, in Maister's eyes, Neil McLeod and Les Wilson fully deserve to be recognised after being accredited into the village. The IOC takes a different stance.
Some years earlier, at the 1952 Winter Olympics - the first time New Zealanders had competed at the winter Games - flag-bearer Roy McKenzie was injured before he could take to the slopes.
Maister says the all-time list heading to Beijing reaches "the high 900s" with the 1000th to be ascertained once all team members have checked in. "This will not be straight away as some sports come later in the programme and team members will not be accredited in some cases days after the Games have started," said Maister. "Only then can we start the exercise by going through and eliminating all those who are not first-timers and putting the rest in alphabetical order."
Middle-distance runner Cecil Matthews, who competed in the 5000m at the 1936 Berlin Games seems set to be acknowledged as New Zealand's 50th Olympian taking that honour from Jack Lovelock.
The yet-to-be finally confirmed 100th competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics but the 500th is thought to be judo exponent Graham Spinks who was eliminated in the first round in Los Angeles in 1984.
It has taken only 24 years to go from 500 to 1000 whereas it took 76 years to reach the first 500. The 183-strong team already selected for Beijing will be New Zealand's biggest - surpassing the 150 who went to Sydney (2000), the 149 to Athens (2004) and 145 to Barcelona (1992).
