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‘That wasn’t very nice’: Hamish Carter recalls cheeky move to win Olympic gold
Sport Nation • October 21st, 2026 11:42 am
Hamish Carter (NZL) with his Gold Medal Triathlon - Men's Summer Olympics - Athens, Greece 2004 Day 13, 26th August 2004. Photo: Sandra Teddy/Photosport
Former New Zealand triathlete Hamish Carter has reflected on his 2004 Summer Olympics gold medal in Athens, Greece, where he finished just under eight seconds ahead of fellow Kiwi Bevan Docherty.
Carter's gold medal has long been touted as one of New Zealand's greatest sporting achievements, with a one-two finish alongside Docherty cementing the race's place among the country's most memorable and impressive Olympic performances.
Diving into his decade-long Triathlon career with Sport Nation, Carter admitted he still gets stopped in public, with people sharing their experiences of the race.
"It definitely does [bring emotions]," Carter told Millsy & Guy.
"I think it's an incredible sense of achievement and what's really powerful about it is, it feels like it gives more out to the universe than you get for yourself.
"So you get so much for yourself, but it feels it gives so much out to other people, which is quite incredible. And it inspires other people; that's what's really special about it.
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" I think what's very surprising is that you meet lots of people when they come up and they share their experience of watching the race and, I was kind of doing it for selfish reasons, but I felt a real sense of responsibility to want to share what it took with others in different ways."
Looking back on the final moments of the memorable race, Carter recalled Docherty mentioning something to him with around 800m to go, when the two Kiwis had pulled away from the pack.
"You're running nearly as fast as you can and you're pretty tired. Bevan was younger than me, and he did the surge with about 800 to go. He sort of stretched away, and I went with him, and then it was just the two of us.
"We were like, 'yep, you're not beating me'. He didn't say that, but as we got away and we were kind of racing along, Bevan said, ' Oh, hey, we're going to get a medal here' - it's quite a funny thing to say.
"I remember vividly thinking 'oh shit, dude, I can't believe you can talk right now'. When you're talking, you're not breathing, right? So then my next split-second thought was like, he's talking; I attacked him pretty much straight away because when you're talking, you're not breathing.
"I thought he might miss a breath and I've got him. So I surged, eventually got a gap, and then we only had about 300m to go. Anyway, I crossed the finish line and it was funny because Bevan came in and he's like, 'that wasn't very nice'.
"He was stoked as well, so it was a pretty surreal moment."
Listen to the full interview below:
