News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Winter Wonderland for World’s Best In-Training

Winter Wonderland for World’s Best In-Training

“Every August, the world’s best snowboarders come to work on big-air and physics-defying tricks in this tiny town hidden by mountains and surrounded by sheep,” New York Times reporter Joe Drapes writes. “The athletes…

Smith-Gobat to Make Trio of US Climbing Record Attempts

Smith-Gobat to Make Trio of US Climbing Record Attempts

World-class rock climber New Zealander Mayan Smith-Gobat, 34, will soon begin three ambitious free climbs in California’s Yosemite Valley, including one world record speed attempt – to free climb a 1444m-high rock formation in…

New Zealand Olympian Wins Fifth Avenue Mile

New Zealand Olympian Wins Fifth Avenue Mile

New Zealand’s Nick Willis has won the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, completing the run in 3 minutes and 52.1 seconds. It is the second time that Willis has won the title, having…

Kiwi Set to Light Up US College Basketball Team

Kiwi Set to Light Up US College Basketball Team

Exciting New Zealand basketball prospect Jack Salt will play for University of Virginia college team, the Cavaliers, next year. Salt will be coached by Tony Bennett, who played and coached in Auckland for four…

Triumph from the Saddle at Burghley Trials

Triumph from the Saddle at Burghley Trials

New Zealanders have come up trumps at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, with Jock Paget, 29, taking the top spot and Marlborough-based world No 1 Andrew Nicholson, 52, taking second place, as well as…

Illinois Race Win for Young Cyclist

Illinois Race Win for Young Cyclist

Auckland cyclist Alexander Ray has won the Bloomington Jaycee Criterium in Illinois. The 22-year-old’s solo breakaway with six laps left so shredded the legs of his opponents, he had more than enough strength to…

Phil Keoghan Retraces 1928 Tour de France

Phil Keoghan Retraces 1928 Tour de France

New Zealander Phil Keoghan has paid homage to the first New Zealander to complete the Tour de France team in an effort to raise funds for the United States National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The…

Tributes Pour in After 26-year-old New Zealand Rider Dies in ‘Tragic Accident’

Tributes Pour in After 26-year-old New Zealand Rider Dies in ‘Tragic Accident’

New Zealander Tom Gadsby, a young horse rider, died after falling from his horse during an eventing competition in Cheshire, England on Sunday. Tom, a Kerikeri native, was riding on the cross-country course at…

Kiwis top the International Tree Climbing Championship

Kiwis top the International Tree Climbing Championship

Three New Zealanders have climbed their way to the top of the 2013 International Tree Climbing Championship in Toronto. Scott Forrest, Nick Ward-Allen and James Kilpatrick (pictured) each won top places at the championship,…

Valerie Adams Wins Fourth Straight Word Championship Title

Valerie Adams Wins Fourth Straight Word Championship Title

New Zealand Olympic champion Valerie Adams won the women’s shot put title at the world championships at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, making her the first women in history to take home four consecutive titles. …

Ready for the Next Leg in Nevada

Ready for the Next Leg in Nevada

New Zealander Callum Millward has placed third at Ironman 70.3 Boulder and is now focused on the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas, which takes place on 8 September. Millward talks to triathlon…

New Zealander to Hike Length of Korean Peninsula

New Zealander to Hike Length of Korean Peninsula

Former New Zealand police officer Roger Shepherd is preparing to achieve an ambitious goal – being the first person to hike the entire length of Baekdudaegan, the mountain range that forms the geological spine…

New Singapore Role for Former Silver Ferns Coach

New Singapore Role for Former Silver Ferns Coach

Ruth Aitken is taking up the role of Netball Singapore’s new technical director and national coach. Mastering the pronunciation of her new charges’ names may be tricky for the New Zealander, but she has…

Fit Runs in the Family

Fit Runs in the Family

Originally from Opotiki, Grant Goes, 32, Dubai’s 2012 Fittest Man, has just completed the gruelling Give Me 3000 challenge, in which he completed 300 repetitions of 10 key exercises in under five hours. The…

Steven Adams Thrilled With NBA Draft

Steven Adams Thrilled With NBA Draft

Steven Adams, 19, has become the first New Zealander to be picked in the first round of an NBA draft. Selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Adams is only the second ever Kiwi selected…

American Football Lineman Going Far

American Football Lineman Going Far

New Zealander Nic Purcell “is the most improbable player in Eagles camp this summer”, according to Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. The 27-year-old lineman grew up playing basketball and rugby and never set foot on…

Gender Never Discussed in Castle Appointment

Gender Never Discussed in Castle Appointment

Netball New Zealand head Raelene Castle, 42, has been appointed chief executive of the Bulldogs, the first time an NRL club has hired a woman for the top job. Bulldogs chairman Ray Dib said…

Former Pitcher Turns Oregon’s Luck Around

Former Pitcher Turns Oregon’s Luck Around

Formerly of Wellington, Mike White, who became a US citizen in 1994, has turned the Oregon softball program “into a powerhouse”, according to ESPN. One of the elite pitchers in the world during a…

Chris Wood’s Premier League Hopes Dashed

Chris Wood’s Premier League Hopes Dashed

Chris Wood, All White and Leicester City striker, has missed out on joining fellow-All White Winston Reid in the English Premier League next season. Wood’s team were beaten 3-1 by Watford  in the second…

NZ’s Jonathan Paget Wins Badminton

NZ’s Jonathan Paget Wins Badminton

New Zealander Jonathan “Jock” Paget, 29, became only the second person to win the Badminton horse trials at the first attempt, says The Telegraph. Paget, a former bricklayer who only started riding at 18,…

Kentucky Eventing Win for Nicholson

Kentucky Eventing Win for Nicholson

Seven-time New Zealand Olympian Andrew Nicholson, 51, has won the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in the United States. Nicholson maintained his lead after the cross-country riding Quimbo, jumping a careful clear round in the…

Waddell Says Glasgow Will Host ‘amazing’ Games

Waddell Says Glasgow Will Host ‘amazing’ Games

Rob Waddell, head of the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team, told The Scotsman he is confident that Glasgow will host an ‘amazing’ Games next year. Speaking at the end of a four-day visit, Rob…

Meteoric Rise for Victory Star

Meteoric Rise for Victory Star

Twenty-one-year-old Melbourne Victory attacker Hamilton-born Marco Rojas has won the Johnny Warren Medal as the A-League player of the year, doubling the amount of votes second-placed Italian soccer legend Alessandro Del Piero, 38, received….

All-American from Taranaki

All-American from Taranaki

Originally from Waitara, Terai Sadler, 20, who plays basketball for Crowder College in Missouri, “can claim something no other Lady ‘Rider has – and perhaps very few around the nation – she’s the school’s…

Michigan Ace

Michigan Ace

Christchurch-born Barrett Franks, 21, is playing the “best tennis of his collegiate career” for the University of Michigan. Franks’ talent was widely known in New Zealand. Such talent earned him a spot on the…

On the Way to His NBA Dream

On the Way to His NBA Dream

Seven-foot-tall Rotorua-born Steven Adams plays basketball for the University of Pittsburgh. “A 19-year-old with size-19 shoes, inhabiting a new world, enjoying a pit stop on the way to his NBA dream.” A “compelling” story…

Erakovic Scores WTA Title

Erakovic Scores WTA Title

‘Run up the flags. New Zealand finally has a winner again,’ said Bob Greene of World Tennis Magazine. He was talking about Marina Erakovic winning her first World Tennis Association (WTA) title. The win…

Ryan Nelsen Scores Coaching Position

Ryan Nelsen Scores Coaching Position

Former All Whites skipper Ryan Nelsen, has his first-ever coaching job, at Toronto FC. He faces a huge task trying to turn the club around, writes Sonja Cori Missio in The Guardian. Nelsen was…

First in Memphis

First in Memphis

Marina Erakovic, 24, has became the first New Zealander, since Belinda Cordwell in 1989, to win a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) title, lifting her first career trophy with a truncated triumph over third-seeded German…

Another Record Pocketed

Another Record Pocketed

Professional pool player Macau-based Rocky Lane has broken his own jump-shooting world record time, potting 15 pool balls from the table in 11.29 seconds. New Zealand-born Lane is newly invited as…

Tourism At Speed

Tourism At Speed

New Zealand’s newest cross-country Te Araroa Trail is the perfect challenge for British ultrarunner Jez Bragg, 31, who plans to run the track – from Cape Reinga to Bluff – in 50…

Head Coach Role For Soccer Star

Head Coach Role For Soccer Star

Former All Whites captain and Tottenham Hotspur player Ryan Nelsen, 35, has been signed with Toronto FC as head coach. Christchurch-born Nelsen is no stranger to Major League Soccer (MLS), having captained American team…

Trail Running Trend Speeds Up

Trail Running Trend Speeds Up

“It is the perfect new year challenge – a week’s journey on foot and at speed through New Zealand’s fairytale valleys,” The Financial Times’ Jonathan Thompson writes. “It is, to put it mildly, a…

Rethinking Team Rankings

Rethinking Team Rankings

Economist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New Zealander Niven Winchester, who studies sports rankings as a hobby, argues that The National Football League (NFL) should rank teams more the way rugby does. Winchester calculates…

Speed Demon Wins In US

Speed Demon Wins In US

New Zealand Paralympic skier Adam Hall, 25, was at Copper Mountain, Colorado for the 2012-13 IPC Nor-Am Cup, where he won two silver medals in the men’s standing competition. Dunedin-born Hall says he likes…

Knock Out For Life

Knock Out For Life

New Zealand All Black and kickboxer, Hastings-born Hika Elliot, 26, unbeaten in 62 fights, will square off against Australian league player Paul Gallen in the Fight For Life boxing charity event in Auckland on…

Nebraska’s Prize Prospect

Nebraska’s Prize Prospect

Huskers point guard prospect New Zealander Tai Webster is considered the prize of Nebraska coach Tim Miles’ first recruiting class. ESPN.com rates Webster as a four-star recruit with the following summation: “Webster is a…

Irish Coaching Role for Smith

Irish Coaching Role for Smith

New Zealander Darren Smith has been named the new Ireland women’s hockey national coach. Napier-born Smith, 39, takes up the role following six years as assistant coach to the New Zealand men’s team who…

Diamond Blacks Qualify

Diamond Blacks Qualify

“Starved of funding, given little public attention, and overshadowed by a more popular close cousin, baseball has had it rough in New Zealand, the sport’s chief executive Ryan Flynn concedes. But all that could…

Wildcat Spark Plug

Wildcat Spark Plug

Hawkes Bay basketball player Everard Bartlett, 26, is fast establishing a reputation as Perth’s spark plug, emerging as yet another scoring weapon for the Wildcats as it looks to build on an impressive 3-0…

Epic Story About Epic Men

Epic Story About Epic Men

A new book about New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Mt Everest “is one of courage, perseverance and jingoism”, author Justin Cartwright writes for The Observer. “Mick Conefrey’s moving book…

Bevin’s Got Great Legs

Bevin’s Got Great Legs

New Zealand cyclists Patrick Bevin and Logan Hutchins have taken first and second places respectively in the inaugural Thompson Bucks County Classic professional bicycle race in Pennsylvania. Finishing 1-2 with Hutchins was a special…

Charming Sport Over Ice

Charming Sport Over Ice

“Here at Naseby, a seriously small town in Central Otago region, I meet Sean Becker, a former Olympic curling representative and current member of the New Zealand men’s team, his father, Peter Becker, and…

Giant Impresses

Giant Impresses

New Zealander Steven Adams, 19, “just may be one of the most intriguing players in college basketball this season, not to mention one of the most physically impressive at 7-foot, 250 pounds,” ESPN senior…

Three Medals for Sophie

Three Medals for Sophie

19-year-old Christchurch swimming star Sophie Pascoe broke a world record and took three medals in the pool at the London Paralympics, two golds and a silver. Pascoe’s first gold saw her set a new…

Multi-tasking on Court

Multi-tasking on Court

New Zealand point guard Tai Webster has committed to studying and playing at the University of Nebraska. Webster, at 17 years old, is a rising star, having become the youngest player to ever make…

Valerie Achieves Olympic Goal

Valerie Achieves Olympic Goal

Valerie Adams has had her silver Olympic medal upgraded to gold after rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus had failed a drug test. Ostapchuk’s disqualification means Adams is now the holder of back-to-back Olympic golds…

Olympic BMX Dream Comes True

Olympic BMX Dream Comes True

BMX rider Sarah Walker, 24, has won an Olympic silver medal for New Zealand. Walker, who is from Kawerau, finished fourth over the three-race semi-final to win her place in the final. She barely…

Backcountry Kicks

Backcountry Kicks

“Imagine a contest where a helicopter lifts you to the highest peaks in Mount Aspiring National Park, and for two days, you get to ski powder, cliffs, and backcountry kickers,” Megan Michelson writes for…

Lapping Up the Medals

Lapping Up the Medals

New Zealand supporters in London have been enjoying the unusual experience of being ahead in Olympic medals over Australia. At Kiwi House Jessica Middleton, 24, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the colours of the…

Induction into Hall of Fame

Induction into Hall of Fame

Three-time Olympic gold medallist Opunake-born Peter Snell will be among the 24 inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) Hall of Fame. Snell won the 800m at the 1960 Olympics and…

Room for Manoeuvre

Room for Manoeuvre

Silver Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu is calling for youngsters to make a statement and secure a spot for the international season at the start of the team’s four-year cycle. Taumaunu, 49, has acknowledged inexperience…

Win Over Rivals in London

Win Over Rivals in London

The Black Sticks have beaten Australia at the London Olympics 1-0 in the opening game of the women’s hockey tournament, a first win over their rivals in Games history. The Black Sticks rode on…

Netball Days Continue in US

Netball Days Continue in US

New Zealander Shallyn Reeves captained the first American national netball team at the World University Netball Championships in South Africa this month. When Reeves finished high school in New Zealand and decided to continue…

Triumphant in Sydney Debut

Triumphant in Sydney Debut

Eighteen-year-old Pukekohe jockey Alysha Collett took on the big boys of the Sydney racing scene at Rosehill and emerged triumphant riding the Australian-trained Matiya’s Pride. Collett was invited to Australia by Sydney’s premier trainer…

Hopes for Gold at Olympic Stadium

Hopes for Gold at Olympic Stadium

Like many of the more than 40 Olympians with Michigan ties who’ll compete during the next few weeks at the London Games, New Zealander Nick Willis — who represented the University of Michigan in…