Sowry's new Olympic gig
Outgoing Queenstown Airport boss Glen Sowry has just been elected as the new New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) chair.
A former sailor, Sowry, 63, is Olympian #848.
He was first appointed to the NZOC board in 2023, ahead of the Paris Olympics, and will replace Diana Puketapu-Lyndon. Sowry, who finishes as airport CEO next month, says he's "honoured" to take on the job and build on the work Puketapu-Lyndon has done.
"I look forward to working collaboratively with the board, athletes and our diverse range of stakeholders of the NZOC to support our athletes to achieve continued success at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, and to continue to promote the Olympic values and instil pride and excellence in all New Zealanders," he says.
Sowry, who competed in the Tornado event at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, was earlier selected for Sir Peter Blake's 1985-'86 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race campaign, onboard Lion New Zealand.
He went on to sail onboard Steinlager 2, helm the back-up boat for the NZ challenge for the America's Cup in '91-'92, and was then selected by Grant Dalton was watch captain for the '93-'94 Whitbread onboard NZ Endeavour.
He's previously served on the Yachting NZ high performance committee, and was a Yachting NZ Olympic selector for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
7 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Kiwi Erika Fairweather disqualified from 400m freestyle world title defence
Erika Fairweather after winning her heat at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo / INPHO Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Erika Fairweather after winning her heat at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo / INPHO Erika Fairweather's defence of her world 400m freestyle title was short-lived after the Kiwi swimmer was disqualified for a false start. The 21-year-old finished fourth in the third heat at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Sunday, with a time of 4min 3.39sec - which would've seen her comfortably qualify in sixth for the final. Instead, Fairweather was scratched after what the international broadcasters said was a move on the start. Here's the Fairweather false start at the top of the screen in the blue suit. What do you think? I think the call is technically correct. I don't know what the officials' guidelines are on what is too little to count, but there's definitely early movement there. — Braden Keith (@Braden_Keith) July 27, 2025 Nine-time Olympic gold medallist Katie Ledecky - the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history - qualified first with a time of 4:01.04.
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Kiwi Erika Fairweather disqualified from world 400m freestyle title defence
Erika Fairweather narrowly missed bronze at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Photosport Reigning world champion Erica Fairweather has seen her 400m freestyle title defence derailed, when she was disqualified for breaking after her heat in Singapore. The Kiwi swimmer clocked 4m 03.39s, finishing fourth in the third heat, which would have seen her safely through to the final, but she had her performance scrubbed out for allegedly flinching on the starting block before the gun. Her time would have been the sixth fastest in qualifying. Disqualifications in swimming are rare. Fairweather, 21, captured the title at Doha last year in 3m 59.44s, as superstars Ariarne Titmus (Australia), Katie Ledecky (USA) and Summer McIntosh (Canada). She would later finish fourth behind that trio at the Paris Olympics, just 0.26s behind Ledecky for bronze. Ledecky and McIntosh will contest the title , but Olympic champion Titmus has bypassed the meet, while fifth-ranked American Claire Weinstein has also withdrawn from the event. Fairweather is also entered for the 200m freestyle, where she won silver last year, with heats scheduled for Tuesday. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Newsroom
2 days ago
- Newsroom
Champion Fairweather goes for a medal three-peat
Erika Fairweather will be the first New Zealander to defend a swimming world title at the World Aquatics championships in Singapore starting on Sunday. Should she place on the podium in the 400m freestyle on July 27, she, at just 21, will become the first Aquablack to win a medal at three different World Aquatics long course championships after her efforts in 2023 and 2024. She may have to be on top form even to be just outside the medals as she was at Paris. But it is the podium that Fairweather and her new coach Graham Hill will be aiming for. Just one other female -Lauren Boyle – has stood on any level of a world championship swimming podium for New Zealand. But she was six foot and aged 25 when she got her first medal in 2013. Fairweather was a teenager when she won her first. Now she is off to her sixth world championships. Her first was as a 15-year-old when she won the 200m freestyle at the 2019 World Junior championships. Fairweather switched to Hill in Auckland from Otago earlier this year after her previous coach Lars Humer retired from international coaching. Hill, whose swimmers have won six Olympic medals across four Olympic Games, arrived from South Africa where he was the head coach of the South African swim team. As Swimming New Zealand's head Olympic coach, he wants medals from Aquablacks now. Hill likes winning medals. Australian Ariarne Titmus, unbeaten in the 400m freestyle since 2018, is taking a break from competitive swimming. This may not even make a podium placing easier for Fairweather as competition this year is faster than any Olympic year. Without Titmus at Paris, Fairweather would have been New Zealand's first female Olympic swimming medallist since 1952. It's rare for a Kiwi to come away from a long course world swimming championship with a medal. Since Danyon Loader won three medals at Rome in 1994, only three have. Indeed, it is rare for a Kiwi to compete in an individual final; just four have since 2015. While New Zealand got its first 4x200m women's freestyle relay in an Olympic final at Paris, there will not be a Singapore repeat; New Zealand is not entering one, preferring to focus on Fairweather's 800m event the following day. At last year's worlds, Fairweather won an 800m bronze medal and her relay the day before was placed fourth. Fairweather deserves to rub shoulders with her main rivals, former world record holder Katie Ledecky of the US and the hot favourite and current world record holder, 18-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh, the world's best athlete in a swim cap. At the 2023 world championships, in beating McIntosh, Fairweather shared a podium with Ledecky and Titmus when she became the world's fifth woman to ever break four minutes in the 400m freestyle. In less than a year, things have changed. At Paris last year, Fairweather was competing against the best 400m freestyle swimmers of all time. But they have just got faster as they use this year as a launching pad for the 2028 Olympics. Ledecky currently holds four world records. McIntosh holds six, three of which were set in one competition last month, the first swimmer to do that since Michael Phelps in 2008. Australian Lani Pallister and Tokyo Olympic medallist Li Bingjie from China added their names to that exclusive sub four-minute group, with US teenage swimmer Claire Weinstein just 0.05 seconds shy. Pallister is ranked second this year in the 25m pool. Fairweather looks for her time at the Swimming NZ Champs. Photo: David Rowland/ and Swimming NZ Before Paris, it was Fairweather who was setting lifetime bests when others were not, so she will be looking for a competitive time again this month. Her last lifetime best across her top events (3:59.44 seconds) was at trials for Paris, but her best this season is 4:03.06 seconds. Hill will be hoping Fairweather hits her straps for a big season best to touch the wall ahead of some of the top four seeds in Singapore. It's unlikely she will successfully defend her title unless she improves on her season best by at least eight seconds. But if she clocks a lifetime best, as she has done at each of the past two world championships, she could be on the podium with Ledecky and McIntosh unless Pallister shuts her out. Ledecky was just 0.26 seconds (or about 40 centimetres) ahead of Fairweather at Paris. It's not much. Fairweather has indicated she wants to compete at her third Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, where she will still only be 24. As times get quicker and a couple more like Weinstein join the sub-four club, it may take a sub four-minute swim to make a 400m freestyle Olympic final, with Ledecky at her home Olympics and Titmus back for her final Olympics, to attempt a three-peat.
