New Zealand has won more than 110 Olympic medals, but which were the biggest surprises?
Natalie Rooney, 2016, Rio
Natalie Rooney was truly one out of the box.
Leading into the Rio Games most of the talk centred on the rowers, sailors, cyclists, rugby players and kayakers, with hopes that a medal or two could be snagged amongst the track and field contingent and perhaps the women's hockey team.
But Rooney stole the early headlines, claiming New Zealand's first medal of the 2016 Games.
Just 18 months earlier, the Waimate product had been ranked 64th in the world.
A series of solid results pushed her into Olympic contention, before she beat the best Aussies to gain the precious Oceania quota spot.
Once in Rio, Rooney rose to the occasion.
She nailed 68 of a possible 75 targets in qualifying, one of six women from the 21-strong field to reach the semi-final. The 27-year-old then progressed to the gold medal match, finally falling to Australian Catherine Skinner by one shot after holding an early advantage.
It was a quintessential underdog story.
Rooney had been competing internationally for a decade, but apart from a one-off $20,00 grant in December 2015, had not attracted support from funding agencies and had trained on a custom built facility on her father's property, as there were no automatic traps in the South Island.
Rooney was New Zealand's second shooting medallist, after smallbore marksman Ian Ballinger in Mexico in 1968.
Paul Kingsman, 1988, Seoul
Before the 1988 Games, New Zealand had managed just two swimming medals.
In one of the most competitive Olympic sports, only Malcolm Champion (gold, 1912) and Jean Hurring (bronze, 1952) had visited the podium.
In Seoul, Paul Kingsman wasn't expected to challenge that statistic, ranked 20th in the world in the 200 metre backstroke that year.
From a field of 44 competitors, Kingsman did well to make the final, recording the seventh fastest time. The decider was a battle of the giants, with major nations like the Soviet Union (two), East Germany (two), West Germany, United States and Brazil represented.
But the 21-year-old Aucklander wasn't overawed and had a solid race plan, aiming for two minutes flat.
From a difficult spot in lane one, Kingsman managed the performance of his life. He was among a cluster of swimmers behind the leading trio in the first 100m of the race, before accelerating in the second half.
In a thrilling final push, he overhauled former world record holder and 1987 European champion Sergei Zabolotnov to claim the bronze.
The margin was just 0.04 seconds and Kingsman's time of 2:00:48 stood as a Commonwealth record for 20 years.
Luuka Jones, 2016, Rio
When Luuka Jones lined up for the final of the K1 Canoe slalom in Rio, it's fair to say there weren't high expectations back in New Zealand.
Ranked 22nd in the world ahead of the Games, it felt like the Tauranga-born paddler had overachieved by reaching the Olympics final, with eleven of the 21 competitors eliminated.
But there was much more to come.
Setting out fourth, Jones produced a superb run, twisting through the 24 gate, 242 metre course without a penalty, with a time of 101.82 seconds.
She then watched her rivals falter, with only London bronze medallist Maialen Chourraut besting her time.
It was a remarkable result and a reward for perseverance and toil.
As a 19-year-old Jones had finished 21st in Beijing, before reaching the semi finals in London (14th) four years later, after a campaign that was mostly self funded.
Support from High Performance Sport New Zealand followed, which allowed more coaching resource and extra time training on the Rio course, which proved invaluable.
Her success was New Zealand's first canoe slalom medal, after Mike Dawson had become the first Kiwi to reach an Olympic final on the white water a day earlier.
Men's Black Sticks, 1976, Montreal
From the 12 nations that qualified teams for the 1976 Games, the usual suspects were expected to dominate.
There was a lot of focus on Pakistan, who had reached the previous five Olympic finals (winning two) and the Netherlands, who finished had fourth in 1972.
Defending Olympic champions West Germany had a strong squad, as did Spain, while 1975 World Cup winners India, who had claimed 10 Olympic medals (including seven gold) were perennial contenders.
New Zealand had an experienced team, with several Olympic veterans from the previous two games but had only managed seventh at the 1975 World Cup, with most pundits viewing Australia as the threat from this part of the world.
The Blacks Sticks were in the 'group of death', with Pakistan, West Germany, European champions Spain and Belgium.
In pool play they managed 1-1 draws with the Germans and Spanish, beat Belgium 2-1 and lost to Pakistan 5-2.
That set up a playoff with Spain, with a Ramesh Patel goal proving the difference after three periods of extra time. In the subsequent semi final New Zealand upset the Netherlands 2-1, in another triple over time contest.
On the other side of the draw Australia had beaten Pakistan and were favoured for the final, bringing cases of champagne to the stadium.
But the Black Sticks prevailed in an epic encounter, with a Tony Ineson penalty strike, backed up by a couple of memorable saves by goalkeeper Trevor Manning, sealing the ultimate prize.
Lorraine Moller, 1992, Barcelona
Moller's selection for the 1992 Games had been widely questioned.
No one doubted her pedigree, with successes on the road and track dating back to the late 1970s.
She had been a pioneer in the women's marathon, and won numerous big races in the early 1980s, including the 1984 Boston Marathon.
But Moller had struggled at the 1988 Olympics, finishing 33rd, after an impressive fifth placing at the Los Angeles Games four years earlier.
She was 37-year-old when the Barcelona Games rolled around, with the general view that her best days were behind her.
But Moller had prepared well, with gruelling practice runs in the midday sun and uphill sprints, to replicate what she would face in Spain, with the notorious summer heat and humidity and an extended three mile climb near the finish.
She has also been energised by her mentor Arthur Lydiard, who reminded her that 90 per cent of athletes don't perform at their best in the Olympics, so she only had to beat the other 10 per cent.
Though the race started at 6:30pm, conditions were brutal, with temperatures on the road topping 40 degrees.
Russian Valentina Yegorova edged Japanese Yuko Arimori for the gold, but the Kiwi was well ahead of the rest of the pack, almost two and a half minutes faster than the fourth place finisher.
Among the 47-strong field, Moller had beaten many of the pre-race favourites, including reigning world champion Wanda Panfil, 1988 Olympic silver medallist Lisa Ondieki and Katrin Dorre, who medalled at the 1991 World Championships and the 1988 Olympics.
One of New Zealand’s most successful female rowers has announced her retirement.