After two weeks of gruelling competition, Covid concerns and empty stadium, the 2020 Olympics have come to an end – with a historic result for New Zealand.
Tokyo 2020 saw our athletes cross the 20 medal mark for the first time ever, walking away with seven gold, six silver, andseven bronze medals – good enough to place 13th on the medal table out of the over 200 countries and Olympic committees that took part.
Canoeist Lisa Carrington became New Zealand's most successful Olympian ever, scoring three golds to bring her tally up to six – more than any other New Zealander. Her successes came after some history making from her fellow competitors, with shotputter Dame Valerie Adams the first woman to cross the four medal mark in her fifth Olympic games, while Hamish Bond was the first New Zealander to win gold at three successive games.
The event also saw some surprising wins for Kiwi competitors, with Dylan Schmidt earning New Zealand's first ever gymnastics medal with a bronze in the trampolining, while Emma Twigg came back from successive near misses at past Olympics to win her first gold in the single sculls.
Newstalk ZB's Jason Pine has been keeping audiences up to date on all the successes with the Tokyo in 20 podcast, wrapping up New Zealand's wins and near-misses as well as all the key moments from international teams – and the viral stories that have dominated headlines.
Now that Tokyo has extinguished their Olympic flame and the athletes are all heading home, Pine has reunited with Adam Cooper and Andrew Alderson to dissect the highs, lows and notable moments from Tokyo 2020 – including the athletes that surprised the country, the sports that could see their funding cut, and why this was a more emotional games than what has come before.
Tokyo in 20 is available to stream on iHeart Radio and all other podcast apps.
