New Zealand competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. The New Zealand Olympic Committee was represented by 87 athletes and 29 officials. Flag bearer at the opening ceremony was wrestler David Aspin.
In protest at a tour of South Africa by the All Blacks team early in the year, Congo's official Jean Claude Ganga led a boycott of 28 African nations as the IOC refused to bar the New Zealand team. Some of the nations (including Morocco, Cameroon and Egypt) had already participated however, as the teams only withdrew after the first day. From Southern and Central Africa, only Senegal and Ivory Coast took part. Both Iraq and Guyana also opted to join the Congolese-led boycott. For the full list of boycotting countries, see 1976 Summer Olympics#Boycotting countries
Famous quotes containing the words zealand and/or summer:
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“The lover never sees personal resemblances in his mistress to her kindred or to others. His friends find in her a likeness to her mother, or her sisters, or to persons not of her blood. The lover sees no resemblance except to summer evenings and diamond mornings, to rainbows and the song of birds.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)