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'In my mind, I’m one of the greatest': Ian Ferguson reflects on Olympic legacy
Jaxin Daniels • July 22nd, 2026 7:09 am
Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, Olympic Games 1992, Barcelona | Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Ian Ferguson is living exactly the life he wants after one of the great careers in New Zealand Olympic sport.
The kayaking great has retired to Sandy Bay, where his days are now built around gardening, fishing, surfing and keeping busy around home.
Talking to Sport Nation's Millsy and Guy, Ferguson said life up north is simple but full.
“I get up and do a bit of gardening,” he said.
“I've got quite a bit of gardening land. I grow vegetables, tomatoes, fruit of every sort.
“When this interview is over, I'm going fishing. I just hop on my kayak and paddle out a couple of k's offshore and get some snapper.”
Ferguson said he has no interest in slowing down completely.
“I love working, I can't sit still, so I potter around doing things.”
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The quieter lifestyle comes decades after Ferguson became one of New Zealand’s most decorated Olympians, winning three gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Asked whether that success made him New Zealand’s greatest ever athlete, Ferguson said comparisons across different sports are impossible.
“No one is New Zealand's greatest athlete ever because we're all on different sports and we all shine in different ways.
"You just can't compare one sportsman with another one unless they're in the same race racing each other down the track.”
Still, Ferguson is comfortable with where he sits in New Zealand sporting history.
“Yeah, in my mind, I'm one of the greatest, I think, just in my mind.”
Ferguson said his path to kayaking was not obvious early on, describing himself as an average kid before surf lifesaving changed his direction as a teenager.
“I guess it wasn't until I was about 15 when I started swim training for surf lifesaving, I joined a surf club and I guess that's when I really got into training.”
His move into kayaking came almost by chance after kayakers Michael Fletcher and his brother encouraged him to try it.
After just a week of training, Ferguson entered the National Championships and realised he had found something.
“I was still just trying to stay upright that time, but I just went in the encourage class.
“But my time in the 500 actually beat the open time. So, I thought, oh, this is a bit of me. I'm good at this.”
Two years later, Ferguson won selection for the 1976 Montreal Olympics while still at university in Wellington.
That first Olympic experience only made him want more.
“I absolutely loved it. Just went to those first games in Montreal and the size of it, the excitement of it. The colour, everything was just amazing.
“I just really wasn't gonna let this go. It was so much fun.”
Ian Ferguson receiving his Olympian pin to celebrate 100 years of New Zealand participation in the Olympic Games | Photo: www.photosport.co.nz
By the time Los Angeles arrived in 1984, Ferguson said the New Zealand kayak team knew what it was capable of.
“We knew we could win all those races. We definitely knew.”
He said the medal haul may have surprised the public, but not the athletes themselves.
For Ferguson, the first gold medal brought relief as much as joy.
“Crossing the finish line on that first race of mine, the singles, it was more relief than anything," Ferguson said.
"I didn't stuff up.”
Of his three LA gold medals, the individual K1 title still stands out.
“Well, I guess the singles does because it was my first and that's what I'd always dreamed of and it was my first and I got that.”
The boat from that race is still at his home, painted gold.
"There it is, there's the boat I raced in.
"It's on my wall out just up on my deck, it's painted gold and it reminds me every day that that was the gold boat.”
Ferguson also reflected on his successful partnership with Paul MacDonald, saying the pair worked because of their different personalities and competitive edge.
We got on really well, we always have got on well.”
“We've got different personalities but it absolutely works, it's worked for us together.”
Their sessions were fiercely competitive, even when they were preparing to race together.
“We always really wanted to kill each other on the water.
“We argued away and fought each other on the water, but when we jumped in the boat together, we knew nobody could beat us.”
After his racing career, Ferguson started Ferg’s Kayaks, initially to build a future after competition.
“That was just to keep me growing, so I could try and have a job when kayaking finished, so that I could keep making money.”
He later became more involved in giving back to the sport through coaching and helping make kayaks more accessible.
“I was just trying to get more people into the sport.”
One of Ferguson’s biggest post career projects was the whitewater park in Manukau, an idea he carried for a decade after visiting the Sydney Olympic course.
“That was always my dream," the 74-year-old said.
“It took me 10 years to actually achieve that.”
Now, Ferguson is content with what he built in sport and what he has built at home.
“I live in my dream home, looking out over the ocean, over the waves. Happy as Larry living here, never gonna leave.”
Listen to the full interview below:
