To mark 100 days from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nine.com.au asked you what your favourite Olympic memories were in a survey. The response was overwhelming! We chose 50 of them to re-live, one a day, before new memories are made in Paris. Scroll on for today’s memory.
Sticks were hurled into the crowd and champagne flowed as New Zealand’s men’s hockey team celebrated winning Olympic gold in 1976.
The Kiwis had lowly credentials heading into the Montreal hockey tournament — they had finished ninth at the previous Games and seventh in the 1975 World Cup — but they clawed a spot in the final and achieved the unthinkable.
Led by captain Tony Ineson, the Kiwis took on their trans-Tasman rivals in the decider, squaring off with Australia at Molson Stadium.
Watch the video at the top of the page to see New Zealand win gold in the men’s hockey at the Montreal 1976 Olympics!
The scoreline was locked at 0-0 at half-time, but New Zealand grabbed a 1-0 lead when Ineson scored shortly after the break, whacking the ball into the goal off a penalty corner.
Late in the match, Kiwi goalkeeper Trevor Manning had his left kneecap shattered when he denied a Kookaburras rocket, and although he would return to New Zealand in a cast and a wheelchair, and would undergo a knee reconstruction more than 30 years later, he willed himself through the remaining 10 or so minutes of the final.
Guarding the goal essentially on one leg, he was bombarded by a desperate Australian attack, but the onslaught was resisted and the Kiwis won, clinching gold with a 1-0 victory.
“I just did a couple of squats to let the Aussies know there was nothing wrong with me and I stopped a couple more shots after that,” Manning told New Zealand publication Stuff in 2012.
“I couldn’t put pressure through it. I just went out as far as I could to block the shot and hoped nothing ended up in the back of the net.
“Also, it’s really hard to put on a new goalie in that situation. The reserve hadn’t played in the whole tournament and with all the adrenalin flying around I didn’t feel anything.”
Bullish about their victory chances before the match, the Australians had put champagne on ice in their dressing rooms.
After the shock New Zealand win that followed, the Australians carried the bottles of champagne into the Kiwis’ change rooms and gifted their rivals.
The Kiwis own just one Olympic hockey medal, but are mightily proud the colour is gold.