Events In History
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20 July 2023Football Ferns achieve historic win at FIFA World Cup™
The Football Ferns’ 1–0 victory over Norway at Eden Park, Auckland was the first win by a senior New Zealand team at a World Cup finals tournament. Read more...
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1 December 2018Bronze medal won by young New Zealanders in Uruguay
New Zealand beat Canada 2–1 at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo in the third-place playoff at the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup. Read more...
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14 April 2018Black Sticks Women win Commonwealth gold
In the 2010s New Zealand’s women’s hockey team was consistently among the best in the world, but until 2018 it had not won a major tournament Read more...
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6 August 2012Valerie Adams wins second Olympic gold
Valerie Adams won gold in the shot put at the London Olympic Games. It was awarded a week after the competition, when the intial winner was disqualified for testing positive for an anabolic steroid. Read more...
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14 October 2010Silver Ferns beat Diamonds in Commonwealth Games thriller
Just how close the New Zealand and Australian netball teams were became clear as the match, the longest official game of netball ever played, stretched over 84 pulsating minutes. Read more...
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8 September 2008Sophie Pascoe wins her first medal
At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, 15-year-old Sophie Pascoe won her first medal, a silver in the women's 100m butterfly S10. She went on to win gold medals in 100m backstroke S10, 100m breaststroke SB9 and 200m individual medley SM10. Read more...
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10 April 1984Susan Devoy wins British Open squash tournament
In 1984, Susan Devoy became the first New Zealander to win the women’s title at the prestigious British Open squash tournament, the ‘Wimbledon of Squash’. Read more...
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2 September 1975First New Zealand representative women’s football team wins Asian Cup
In their first outing on the international stage, the New Zealand women’s football team won the invitational Asian Cup tournament in Hong Kong, beating Thailand 3–1 in the final. Read more...
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4 February 1975First woman swims Cook Strait
American Lynne Cox swam from the North Island to the South in 12 hours 7 minutes. The fourth person to do so, she battled heavy seas and strong winds. Read more...
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23 July 1952Yvette Williams leaps to gold at Helsinki
Yvette Williams (later Corlett) won the long jump to become New Zealand’s first female Olympic medallist. Read more...
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23 August 1920New Zealand's first female Olympian
Violet Waldron was New Zealand’s first female Olympian, and part of New Zealand’s first Olympic team of four. She competed in freestyle swimming in the 1920 Antwerp Summer Olympics. Read more...
Articles
Women's football timeline
Sport, 1940-1960
The mid-century decades brought more mass participation in sport, the consolidation of many national competitions, and greater achievement at international level.
- Page 3 - Women's sport, 1940-60Women's sport matured in New Zealand after 1945. Mass participation in a period of prosperity, and increased mobility thanks to the now-common motor car, were crucial
Biographies
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Williams, Yvette Winifred
The sports writer Peter Heidenstrom rated Yvette Williams as his 'New Zealand Athlete of the Century'. There is no doubt that she was one of our greatest-ever athletes - and probably the most versatile.
Read more...
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Main image: Polytechnic women’s football team