Move over, Peter Snell - there are some new pretenders to your throne.
One thing is certain, when we choose our sportsperson for the next century, names like Coutts, Blake and Butterworth are sure to feature.
While some of the country's more exalted stars, sundry All Blacks, cricketers and netballers spring to
mind, Team New Zealand have delivered what the nation demands - victory.
And the manner in which they have achieved that success has proved just as telling: emphatic wins with none of the kissing and hugging that accompanies triumph on the football or cricket field.
Indeed, the demeanour of the Team NZ crew is part of the reason Kiwis have embraced the yachtsmen as true sporting heroes.
Coutts refusing to be cowed by media demands, saying he would front up to the cameras if the team lost; Butterworth calmly uttering instructions on board the boat like the Zen master of the sea; Blake heading the whole operation with a taciturn doggedness, qualities that evoke heroes of yesteryear like Colin Meads and Sir Edmund Hillary. These are the enduring memories of the first successful cup defence outside the United States, a five-nil whitewash that created a piece of America's Cup history.
Team NZ has now won 10 races on the trot, making the team and its skipper Coutts the most successful in the longest-running competition in the world.
But it is not just the big three that have become household names. The big black-boat grinder Craig Monk, who packed on an extra 12kg of muscle for the competition, charmed and impressed a nation with his strength and determination, as did his partner, cup debutante Jonathan Macbeth.
Then there was designer Mike Drummond, who waited 13 years to sail in a cup race, replacing regular navigator Tom Schnackenberg in race three.
Of the unsung heroes, backup helmsman Dean Barker proved he was the rising star of Cup racing, with Coutts crediting the 26-year-old for tuning up the skipper for the pre-start joust, an area in which Team NZ monstered the Italians.
