New Zealand athletes brought home 20 medals from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, a record haul that’s unlikely to be topped by the team going to Paris. For one thing, there are no men’s or women’s rowing eights. For another, there is no Valerie Adams.
Then again, given the recent high-bar form of athletes Eliza McCartney and Hamish Kerr, this may be one of the first Olympics where NZ wins more than one medal for jumping over things in a competition not involving a horse.
To see either on television, you may have to stay up a little late or get up a little early.
But generally, the 10-hour time difference means evening viewing in NZ for live outdoor daytime events in Paris, and some dawn starts for late afternoon and evening events such as track cycling and some swimming and athletics finals.
Sky TV has exclusive live coverage of the games with 12 designated Olympic channels.
Non-Sky subscribers can access the coverage with a one-off $35 Olympics pass via the streaming app SkySportNow.
Free-to-air coverage when Kiwis are competing will be broadcast on the Sky Open channel – formerly Prime TV – which can also be streamed live and for free via the SkyGo app.
Sky Open will have a breakfast review show and its evening coverage will kick off at 7.30pm most nights, and occasionally at 5.30pm.
As for the opening ceremony on July 27, the start of the 2024 Paris Olympics won’t be in a stadium but done in a procession of boats carrying the national teams along a 6km stretch of the Seine to the Trocadéro, the photogenic plaza that’s often the foreground to shots of the Eiffel Tower.
To see the opening live, coverage starts at 5.25am and there will be highlights later at 6pm. As for the actual sport, here’s a chronological viewing guide when most of the NZ team are in action.
Football
The All Whites and the Football Ferns start their group matches ahead of the games’ official opening with the men against Guinea (July 25, 3am), USA (July 28, 5am) and France (July 31, 5am) and the women against Canada (July 26, 3am), Colombia (July 29, 3am), and France (August 1, 7am) before the quarter- and semi-finals and medal matches take the tournament to the final day of the games on August 11.
Rugby Sevens
Likewise, the NZ men’s sevens team will know if they are headed for the podium before the opening ceremony. Their three pool games start on July 25 (from 4am) before the quarter finals on July 26 (from 7am). The medal matches are on July 28 from 5am. For the women and defending gold medallists, their tournament at the Stade de France starts on July 29 (from 4am) with the quarter finals on July 30 (from 7am). The medal matches are on July 31 (from 5am).
Equestrian
It’s off to Versailles for les chevaux with the NZ three-day eventing team of husband and wife Tim and Jonelle Price, and Clarke Johnstone competing on the evenings of July 27-29 before the dressage and jumping competition.
Rowing
There are no NZ men’s or women’s eights to defend the gold and silver medals won in Tokyo but plenty of other Kiwi rowers in smaller boats with podium chances in the regatta, which runs for the first week of the games from July 27. The daytime competition makes for evening viewing in NZ. Among them is Emma Twigg, Tokyo gold medallist in the women’s single scull, who, all going well, will be lining up in another final on August 3.
Canoeing
Our most successful Olympian, Dame Lisa Carrington, starts her fourth games with the six-strong NZ women’s canoe sprint team on the evening of August 6, with women’s K4 500 and K2 500 team heats. NZ will have two boats in the latter, with Carrington and Alicia Hoskin against Aimee Fisher and Lucy Matehaere. The K4 finals are late on the evening of August 8, the K2 finals on the following night and – judging on recent form – Carrington and current world No 1 Fisher should be lining up in the K1 500m finals on August 10. Earlier, Rio Silver Medallist Luuka Jones, at her fifth Olympics, and fellow canoe slalom exponent Finn Butcher will be in the whitewater from July 28.
Surfing
Our two surfing contenders Billy Stairmand, who placed ninth at the inaugural Olympic surfing contest in Japan, and Saffi Vette are in Teahupo’o, Tahiti for the competition. Their three days of heats start on July 28 (men from 5am, women from 9.48am) with the quarterfinals and medal matches scheduled for throughout the morning and early afternoon of July 31.
Cycling
The Paris cycling programme starts on the road with the individual time trials in the early hours of July 28. The men’s road race is on August 3 (from 9pm) and women’s on August 4 (from midnight). In mountain biking, the women and men’s cross-country races – with NZ riders Sammie Maxwell and Sam Gaze respectively – are on just after midnight on July 28 and 29. Our two BMX riders Rico Bearman and Leila Walke will be competing from August 2 (6am), with final rounds the following day. The track competition gets into gear in the wee small hours of August 6, and the 12-strong NZ track team, which includes past Olympic medallists Aaron Gate, Campbell Stewart and Ellesse Andrews, will be among the blur of events at the velodrome that run until the final competition day of the games.
Swimming
The nine-strong NZ swim team are off the blocks early. The current women’s world 400m freestyle champion Erika Fairweather is in the heats on July 27 (from 9pm) and the finals the following day (6.55am). Our other main medal contender and fellow current world champion, Lewis Clareburt, begins his heats in the 400m medley on July 28 (from 9pm) with finals the next morning, July 29 (6.30pm). Both have their respective 200m events later in the week.
Tennis
The NZ team women’s doubles duo of the highly ranked Erin Routliffe and Wimbledon sensation Lulu Sun begin the two qualifying rounds among the 24 teams in the competition at Roland-Garros on July 27. Live, the games will be late-evening viewing. The quarter, semi and medal matches are scheduled for the end of the following week.
Hockey
The NZ women’s team failed to qualify for the first time in 28 years, so NZ hockey fans have only the men’s Black Sticks to support at the tournament. And all their pool games are early-hour affairs. First, they are up against India (July 28, 3.30am), then Belgium (July 29, 3.30am), Argentina (July 31, 3am), Australia (August 1, 8.30pm), and Ireland (August 3, 3am). The quarter finals are on August 6 and 7 and medal matches on August 9.
Sailing
The nine Kiwi sailors won’t be doing laps of the Île de la Cité in Paris but sailing on the Mediterranean from Marseille from July 28. The medal races in the various classes run from August 1, then August 6 and 7. The NZ squad includes our first kite-foilers Justina Kitchen and Lukas Walton-Keim, as well as Olympic medallists Jo Aleh and Molly Meech together in the women’s skiff 49er FX.
Triathlon
Kiwi triathlete Hayden Wilde goes to Paris ranked the number two contender, and he and team mate Dylan McCullough will be risking the waters of the Seine before hitting the streets of Paris in the men’s event on July 30. Nicole van der Kaay and Ainsley Thorpe compete in the women’s event the following day before the quartet return as a team in the mixed relay on August 5. All events start at 6pm NZ time.
Judo & Wrestling
Commonwealth Games judo double medallist Moira Koster starts her tournament in the -78kg women’s division with preliminary rounds on July 31 (from 8pm) with the final block in the competition after midnight (from 2am). In the +78kg women, Commonwealth bronze medallist Sydnee Andrews begins her tournament on August 2 (from 8am) with the competition progressing to final stages after midnight (from 2am). And freestyle wrestler Tayla Ford, also a bronze medal winner at Birmingham, has her day of competition starting on August 6 (1am) with the 68kg women’s division medal bouts the next day (6.50am).
Golf
Lydia Ko, surely the highest-earning sportsperson to ever be part of a NZ Olympics team, tees off at the Le Golf National course for the first of her four rounds on August 7, hoping to add a gold to the bronze and silver she has won at previous games. Earlier in the week, from August 1, Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier will be trying to add a medal to their trophy cabinets. The daily rounds begin at 7pm NZ time.
Athletics
The NZ athletics squad of 17 start their competition at the Stade de France from the second weekend of the games, with the first medal possibilities coming with the men’s shot put. Tokyo bronze medallist Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill, who won bronze at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games behind Walsh’s gold, will be in the qualifications round on August 3 (from 6.10am) before the finals 24 hours later. Sprinter Zoe Hobbs has her qualification race on August 2 before possible semifinals and finals on August 4. Another runner with a promising ranking is George Beamish in the 3000m steeplechase who has his preliminary race on August 6 (5.04am) before a possible final on August 8 (7.40am). On-form high jumper Hamish Kerr has his qualification round from August 7 (8.05pm) before the August 11 finals (5.10am). NZ’s three contenders in the women’s pole vault – Rio medallist Eliza McCartney, Imogen Ayris and Olivia McTaggart – have their qualifying round on August 5 (8.40pm) before the finals August 8 (5am).
Gymnastics
Kiwi trampolinists Dylan Schmidt, who was a silver medallist at Tokyo, and Madaline Davidson both have one day of competitions with the women’s on August 2 (from 10pm) and the men’s on August 3 (from 4am, finals from 5.50am). Former Australian representative Georgia Rose Brown is in the individual artistic gymnastics from the qualifying rounds starting on July 28 (from 7.30pm) with the women’s all-round finals on August 2 (4.15am).
Sport climbing
NZ’s first sport climbing representatives, Sarah Tetzlaff, and current junior world champion Julian David, launch their speed climbing campaigns on August 5 and 6 respectively (both from 11pm). Then it’s women’s semifinal and finals on August 7 (10.35pm) and the men’s the following night at the same time.
Diving
NZ’s sole diving representative Lizzie Roussel is in the women’s 3m springboard in the preliminaries on August 8 (1am), with the semifinals later that day (8pm) and finals on August 10.
Artistic Swimming
Eva Morris and Nina Brown, the third NZ duet to perform in an Olympic synchronized swimming competition, will be in the pool on August 10 and August 11 (both from 5.30am)
Weightlifting
David Liti, who came in fifth at Tokyo in the +102 kg men’s competition, has his time on the stage at the South Paris Arena on August 11 (from 6.30am).
For more info on updated Paris Olympic competition schedules and results go to olympics.com/en/paris-2024/schedule and for local broadcast times tvguide.sky.co.nz
