Paris 2024: What New Zealand Olympians are striving for at this month’s Games

New Zealand’s athletes are aiming high for the 2024 Olympic Games. With unwavering determination, these competitors are pushing their limits in pursuing greatness. In the first instalment of a six-part video series, the Herald talks to some of our top Olympians about the dreams driving them as they prepare for Paris.

Dylan Schmidt: Trampolinist, three-time Olympian

New Zealand’s trampolining star, Schmidt, made history in 2016 as the country’s first trampolinist to compete at the Olympics.

He continued to shine by winning bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Games, marking New Zealand’s first Olympic medal in trampolining.

This time around he made clear his goals: “Obviously, it’s the Olympic Games. I’m not going to beat around the bush. [I’m] pretty keen to win, that’s the goal.”

“I’ve been working pretty hard and I came third in Tokyo so it’d be pretty cool to go a couple better and take out the top spot.”

Sarah Tetzlaff: Speed climber, first-time Olympian

Tetzlaff has won the New Zealand national title for speed climbing multiple times and has broken New Zealand records at nearly every national and international competition she entered.

Entering her first senior Olympic games, she said: “I’m aiming for a top-10 position. I think that’s pretty ambitious.

“Also, going under eight seconds on the wall is my other goal.”

Lewis Clareburt: Swimmer, two-time Olympian

Clareburt won two gold medals at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games - one a Commonwealth record.

In February, he unexpectedly won the 400m individual medley at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, qualifying him for his second Olympics.

Clareburt said on Paris: “I’d love to be on the podium. I mean, ultimately a medal is what I have dreamed for and it’s what I train for.

“I just have to be able to swim as I can and if that gets me on the podium then that’s a dream come true.”

Tom Mackintosh: Rower, two-time Olympian

Mackintosh is an Olympic gold medalist, claiming the top podium spot at Tokyo 2020 in the Men’s Eight.

At Paris, he’ll compete in the Single Scull event.

“Currently I’m ranked third, based off the World Championship results in Serbia last year, so I’d like to improve on that result. But if I came home with a medal I’d still be happy all the same.”

Jake Smith: Hockey player, two-time Olympian

Paris 2024 will be Smith’s second Olympics after being part of the Black Sticks side in Tokyo which finished 9th.

“We’re going to win, we always are. This group is trending in a direction where we think we can do something pretty special. We’re going to focus on that day-by-day and not get too far ahead of ourselves.

“We’d be lying if we said we weren’t going to win.”

Zoe Hobbs: Sprinter, first-time Olympian

Hobbs heads to her first Games narrowly missing the cut for Tokyo.

She said her goal is: “To make the final and see what happens from there.

“Once I make that final I can just let rip and enjoy it as much as possible. World Indoors I didn’t have big expectations but once I made that final I just relaxed and let go and managed to come fourth. Sometimes when you relax and just let it rip, that’s when you bring out your best.”

David Liti: Weightlifter, two-time Olympian

Liti is heading to his second Olympic Games and is aiming to lift his performance to new heights.

“Just knowing that I’ll go out there, have fun and give it my all is comforting enough for me.

“Of course, I do have goals. I want to hit that 190 [kg] mark in the snatch and something around 240 plus in the clean and jerk. Fingers crossed.”

Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.