Alan Thompson (canoeist)
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| Birth name | Alan Blair Thompson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 14 June 1959 Gisborne, New Zealand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 179 cm (5 ft 10 in)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 83 kg (183 lb)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Canoe sprint | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Alan Blair Thompson (born 14 June 1959) is a sprint canoeist who competed in the early to mid-1980s. He competed at three Olympic Games (1980–1988) and has won two Olympic gold medals for New Zealand.
Thompson was born in 1959 in Gisborne, New Zealand.[1] He received his schooling at Gisborne Boys' High School, for whom he played rugby union; he was selected for the under-18 North Island team.[2]
Thompson attended his first Summer Olympics in 1980 in Moscow and was part of the small New Zealand team of just four athletes that attended that year, as most western athletes stayed away due to the boycott that year.[1]
Thompson won three medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with two silvers (K-1 1000 m and K-2 500 m: both 1982), and a bronze (K-1 1000 m: 1983).
He won both of his gold medals at Los Angeles in 1984, earning them in the K-1 1000 m and K-4 1000 m events.[1] Thompson is one of the few New Zealanders to have won two or more Olympic gold medals.[2] He went to his third Olympics in 1988 in Seoul, Korea, and came sixth in the K-1 1000 m.[1]
After retiring from top-level canoeing Thompson became a coach, selector and manager for New Zealand canoeing teams and eventually became president of the New Zealand Canoeing Federation.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Alan Thompson". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 4 December 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ^ a b Swannell, Rikki (12 July 2016). "New Zealand's Greatest Olympians - Number 25: Alan Thompson". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
- ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships – Part 1: flatwater (now sprint): 1936–2007 at WebCite (archived 2009-01-21). Additional archives: Wayback Machine.
- ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships – Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936–2007 at WebCite (archived 2009-11-09)
- Profile on New Zealand Olympic Committee[permanent dead link]
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- 1959 births
- Canoeists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
- Canoeists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
- Canoeists at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Living people
- New Zealand male canoeists
- New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame inductees
- Olympic canoeists of New Zealand
- Olympic gold medalists for New Zealand
- Sportspeople from Gisborne, New Zealand
- Olympic medalists in canoeing
- ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in kayak
- Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
- People educated at Gisborne Boys' High School
- New Zealand sportspeople stubs
- Oceanian canoeist stubs
- New Zealand Olympic medalist stubs