Scratched: Aotearoa's Lost Sporting Legends

- Season 2

(2021)

One morning in 1978, 15-year-old Meda McKenzie got in the Cook Strait in Wellington and started swimming. Just over 12 hours later, she arrived in the South Island. It was just the start of a series of incredible long-distance swims for McKenzie - this is how she did them.

At a college track and field championships meet in 1974, a New Zealand long jumper representing Washington State University did something that had never been done in competition before - a somersault.

The star of the 1990 Commonwealth Games was a young New Zealand gymnast - but Nikki Jenkins wasn't our only gymnastic champion that year. This is the story of Angela Walker, New Zealand's forgotten gold medalist.

From being barred from weightlifting competitions in apartheid-era South Africa to being embraced by his adopted home country New Zealand, Precious McKenzie's is a story of determination - and of the importance of knowing your value.

New Zealand has had a handful of double internationals, athletes who've represented the country in two different sports. In the 1950s, Jane Tehira represented New Zealand in three - basketball, softball and hockey.

In the late 1980s, New Zealand skateboarder Lee Ralph had the world at his feet. But right when he seemed poised to join the sport's elite, he was kicked out of the US - and out of the limelight for good.