Olympics: Sayings of the Games

Key NZ quotes from Athens

"That was cool, it was wicked. There's nothing better than hearing your national anthem being played a thousand miles from home" - cyclist Sarah Ulmer on her medal ceremony.

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"He's in for a surprise when I kick his arse" - archer Ken Uprichard on his highly rated first round opponent Ming Huang Liu. It came down to the last arrow.

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"It's not an Olympic standard course" - three-day eventer Andrew Nicholson the day before he fell off on the Olympic Games cross-country course.

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"Ka mate, ka mate" - chef de mission Dave Currie and Sports Minister Trevor Mallard do the haka in honour of Ulmer's stirring victory.

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"I felt confident and positive, I knew exactly what I was going to do but I couldn't stop her" - Rochelle Stormont after lasting 35 seconds in her first-round judo bout.

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"We knew that the kilometres and training that we've done would get us there in that last 500m, we knew that we'd hang on" - Caroline Evers-Swindell on holding off the fast-finishing Germans.

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"Sarah could have won on one leg, she's in great shape. I give it everything, I am dead now" - defending champion Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel after her bronze behind Ulmer.

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"Ka mate, ka mate" - Currie joins a rousing haka greeting New Zealand athletes to the Games village.

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"It's like the ad where the dog goes to jump on the jeep, and misses it and says 'bugger'. That's how I felt, I really missed the boat" - boxer Soulan Pownceby laments his Athens experience.

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"I feel like I'm lucky to be alive after that. I can get through anything, I've had four kids, three of them were natural. Ouch, nothing's worse than that" - marathon runner Liza Hunter-Galvan says running 42.2km in intense heat is bad, but there are worse things.

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"Ka mate, ka mate" - a haka breaks out at the rowing after the Evers-Swindell twins strike gold, with Currie right in the action.

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"It's just a patch of grass and I train on a patch of grass in Howick" - shot putter Valerie Adams on competing at historic Olympia Stadium, the hallowed birth place of the Games.

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"Ka mate, ka mate" - Currie rips into the haka at the team dinner, after Beatrice Faumuina is named flagbearer.

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"I'm sorry I didn't win. Thank you very much for being here, I hope you enjoyed yourselves" - Li Chunli thanks journalists for watching her lose to the world table tennis No 1.

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"Ka mate, ka mate" - a poignant moment as Currie and New Zealand team members do the haka in a war cemetery, to pay tribute to New Zealand soldiers killed in Greece.

- NZPA