Going for gold: Meet our 2024 Olympic stars

New Zealand’s fastest-ever female 100m sprinter, Zoe is making her Olympic debut this month.

The Taranaki-born 26-year-old, who now lives in Auckland, recorded a time of 10.96 seconds in Switzerland last year, but missed a spot in the final of the last outdoor world championships in Budapest by 0.01 of a second a month later.

The humble athlete is quietly hoping she’ll bring home a medal from Paris, saying, “I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics since I was a kid.” Although she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, she missed selection due to the New Zealand criteria that all athletes be capable of a top-16 finish, making the Paris Olympics all the sweeter. “However many years I’ve been training, to get to that moment…” she says.

Off the track, Zoe is co-founder of athlete nutrition business Athos.

Auckland athlete Eliza says she’s more confident than ever as she prepares to compete at her second Olympics after years of struggling with multiple injuries.

She became a household name in 2015, setting a junior pole vault record of 4.64m, and winning bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics and silver at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. But the 27-year-old suffered chronic Achilles issues that caused agonising pain and threatened to end her sporting career.

However, a new coach – and a new mindset – has put her back on course to get on the international podium. “I know I can be better than this, I know I can jump higher than this and I’m being supported to give it another crack, so I’ll take it. I’ll just do it,” she says.

Eliza also champions sustainability and is one of nine World Athletics ambassadors for the World Athletics Champions For a Better World programme.

New Zealand’s sending its largest-ever women’s canoe sprint team to the Games, led by our most successful Olympian ever, Dame Lisa, 35.

Hailing from Tauranga and brought up in Ōhope Beach, she’s a six-time Olympic medallist – five golds and one bronze – and has 15 world championship gold medals. Her total medal haul of 22 includes nine successive K1 200m titles. She’s also a six-time Halberg Sportswoman of the Year, three-time winner of the Halberg Supreme Award and 2021’s most influential Māori sports personality of the past 30 years.

Lisa will join Gisborne’s Alicia Hoskin in the K2 to defend the gold won with Caitlin Regal in Tokyo, and the duo will team up with first-time Olympians Tara Vaughan and Olivia Brett in the K4.

Lisa has a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in politics and Māori studies, and a Graduate Diploma in psychology. She is now studying for her Masters in psychology.

Two-time Commonwealth Games medallist and Olympian David, 28, says he’ll be chasing a personal best in Paris. “It’s massive to be going to my second Olympics,” he says. “I never dreamed I’d be going to two. To do what I love to my full potential makes me so blessed. I’m excited to get over there and represent everyone who’s been a part of this journey.”

David, who was born in New Zealand but spent the first 10 years of his life in Tonga before returning to Auckland, says eating properly is a big part of his training journey. “For a lot of years, I used to eat once a day. That was just a binge eat at the end of the day,” he says. “My sister took care of me and my six siblings, so it was hard. I got $5 for lunch and bus fare. There’s not much lunch you can buy for $2.50. So for a lot of years, I just ate once and whatever was at home.”

Surfing is in Saffi’s blood. The 22-year-old from Gisborne is the daughter of renowned surfer Andy Vette, who coached his daughter in the sport before losing his battle with cancer in 2020. Saffi says she has her dad to thank for securing a place in her first Olympics.

“Dad introduced me to surfing and I’m so grateful for that,” she says. “I want to work hard for something he’s given me – this opportunity to excel in a sport that I love. I also want to thank my mum as well; she’s always been amazing.”

Surfing was introduced as an Olympic sport for the first time in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “I watched the Olympics growing up, but never thought surfing would be involved,” says Saffi. Earlier this year, she secured a place on the coveted World Surf League Challenger Series alongside the best boarders in the world.

“It’s a huge opportunity to be among so many amazing athletes. It’s a pretty massive achievement for a girl from Gisborne.”

Seasoned Olympians, and husband and wife team Tim and Jonelle, are spearheading the Kiwi equestrian team in Paris. It’s the fourth Olympic Games for Motueka-born Jonelle, 43, and the third for Cantabrian Tim, 45. They are now both based in the UK with their two children, Otis, six, and Abel, four.

Jonelle was labelled “the world’s fastest woman” in 2014, during a gruelling cross-country course in France. Meanwhile, former world number-one Tim will be riding “superstar” Falco, a multi-award winning horse who underwent surgery to remove a tumour in October 2023.

Alongside Tim and Jonelle in the team is Otago-born Clarke, 37, who has been grieving for his partner Codey Jervis. People found the 32-year-old dead in Lake Wānaka on New Year’s Eve.

“Having the goal of the Olympic Games has kept me going the past six months. I have poured my heart and soul into training and competing,” reveals Clarke. “I know he would be so proud.”

Long-distance runner Camille says becoming a mum has changed her as an athlete. “It’s been a pretty big journey and I had to improve a lot. I had to train really hard,” says Camille, 33, who gave birth to daughter Sienna in June 2022. “I feel like it’s been pretty challenging, but in a good way. And I think it just makes you appreciate it, being able to train, and being able to compete and to have Sienna along with the journey makes it all really pretty special.”

Camille, who is married to former top Kiwi 400m hurdler Cameron French, is hoping to improve on her Tokyo performance after an experience she described as “insane”. She “spent the entire Games locked up in a room” after being designated as a close Covid contact. Still, she ran almost a minute off her personal best. “It was horrible,” she recalls. “But as soon as I crossed the line after my last race, I told myself, ‘I’m coming back. I will 100 percent be in Paris.’”

West Aucklander Maddison-Lee is likely to get a pretty loud cheer in Paris – because she’s bringing a crowd! “About 20 of my family are planning on coming,” says Maddi, 25. “We need three people to look after the dogs because no one wants to miss out.”

It’s a second Olympic appearance for Maddi, who won a Commonwealth bronze medal in Birmingham in 2022. Supporters often know her for competing in sunglasses, which she describes as her “lucky charm.” She often performs her best at big events, thriving on competition while staying “cool, calm, and happy.”

She tells, “Usually I don’t have any competitions afterwards. If I break myself in my last throw, it’s not going to be the end of the world.”

Dunedin-born Erika, 20, started the year by winning a triple crown and her first world title in the Doha World Championships in February. She’s a six-time world champion and a definite medal hope in Paris. But the down-to-earth swimmer knows how to balance work and play.

“I’m in a very different position this time,” reveals Erika. She set a New Zealand record in Tokyo at the 400m freestyle while still at high school. “I was a 16-year-old kid when I did the Tokyo Olympics. I had no idea what I was doing! Getting into the finals is one of my goals, for sure. If you have a lane, you have a shot.”

Erika says she’ll swim in any events she can get her hands on, but the 400m is her favourite.

She hopes her own experiences will encourage others to follow in her footsteps. “My parents put me in swimming for water safety, but I was always really competitive. I can’t get enough of racing!” she laughs. “It’s going to be an epic Olympics.”

Three years after reaching the semi-finals in BMX racing during the Tokyo Olympics, Rebecca, 25, is about to become a double Olympian, this time on a track bike. “Less than two years ago, when I decided to step away from BMX to give track cycling a go, the unknown was scary,” admits the Te Awamutu-based elite athlete. “But although it was one of the hardest decisions I’ve made, it’s one I’m glad I made.”

Rebecca, who married her long-term partner, spouting specialist Jarrod Browning at Takapoto Estate by Lake Karapiro in January 2023, broke the national record for the standing one-lap within a month of taking up track cycling. She has achieved world-class times as the starter in the women’s sprint group, which she’ll be in alongside Ellesse Andrews and Shaane Fulton. The trio are currently seventh in the Olympic rankings.

In what has to be the most romantic story of the Olympics, Kiwi trampolinists Dylan and Maddie are both going for gold, But, they’ve already won each other’s hearts.

It’s a third Olympics for Dylan, 27, who was crowned World Champion in 2022. For Maddie, 25, it will be her second. In 2020, she was the first Kiwi female to be selected for an Olympic trampoline event.

While Dylan is based in Auckland and Maddie in Christchurch, the pair will be together in France. They’re due to compete just hours apart on the same day.

Despite officially retiring from the sport in 2016 following her second consecutive fourth placing, quadruple Olympian Emma, 37, picked up her oars again in 2018, and went on to claim gold in the pairs and silver in the eights at the Tokyo Olympics.

Attending the Paris Olympics makes her the first-ever New Zealand rower to compete in five Olympic Games. She’s also the only New Zealand woman to win the Olympic single scull event.

When she’s not rowing, Emma is a cycle mechanic, a marriage celebrant and has completed her boatmasters qualification. She is also mother to Tommy, her two-year-old son with wife Charlotte, whom she married in January 2020.

He’s just 22, but self-titled “country bumpkin” Connor is one to watch. He threw a new national record of 68.10m earlier this year in America.

The former Commonwealth Youth Games and Olympic Youth Games discus champ grew up on a lifestyle block in Waitoki, north of Auckland. He says learning discus helped him figure out his own identity.

“I didn’t really have the social skills to fit in, but when I picked up a discus, I was good at it,” says Connor. He took up the sport 10 years ago.

Describing himself as having “weak wrists, so shot put’s not for me”, Connor is being coached by Dame Valerie Adams’ former coach Kirsten Hellier.

Tayla will this year become the first female wrestler in New Zealand to compete in the Olympics.

Nelson-born, Christchurch-raised Taylor, 30, now lives in Adelaide, Australia, and has been competing internationally since she was 16. She has competed at three Commonwealth Games, winning bronze in Glasgow in 2014 and Birmingham in 2022.

She recently admitted her dad made her learn competitive wrestling for self-defence. Tayla jokes that, “My dad made me do it against my will.” And she couldn’t be more grateful. “It’s a dream come true,” she says.

“I’ve always wanted to make the Olympics. To become the first female wrestler from New Zealand to do so is pretty special.”